Report: Bribery Charges for Lawmaker’s Wife?

Here’s an awkward question: Does the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee have any comment on reports his wife is likely to face criminal bribery charges?

The answer, said a spokesman, is no.

Newspapers in Detroit have for some time identified Monica Conyers, wife of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), as the alleged bribe-taking “Council Member A” in court documents.  (From his chairman’s seat Conyers oversees the Justice Department, including the FBI agents and U.S. attorney’s offices.)

Yesterday, the Detroit News reported that federal prosecutors had offered a plea deal to Conyers, the controversial president pro tempore of the Detroit City Council: plead to a single felony charge and face up to five years behind bars. They’ve got wiretapped conversations, the paper says.

Conyers was reluctant to take the deal, the paper reported; she was hoping to find a way to avoid jail time altogether, it said.

Conyers, like her husband, had no comment on the matter when I called. The Detroit News today reports she told reporters, “I’m doing good. . . I work every day. Don’t you all see me smiling?”

 The backstory: in 2007, Conyers switched her vote on awarding a billion-dollar city project, handing the deal to Synagro Technologies Inc. (who, like the Conyers, had nothing to say to me). Two men involved in the deal, including a former Synagro official, have pled guilty to bribing “Council Member A.” A third man, who allegedly couriered bribes to “Council Member A,” is reportedly cooperating with authorities.