Prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of between 46 and 57 months for Jackson Jr. Jesse Jackson Jr. and the $43K Rolex

Former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) will plead guilty to conspiring with his wife to illegally spend $750,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses, including a $43,000 Rolex watch, fur coats and memorabilia associated with Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Bruce Lee, according to information obtained by POLITICO.

The charges against him include conspiracy, making false statements, and mail and wire fraud.


Prosecutors will recommend a prison sentence of between 46 months and 57 months for Jackson Jr., as well as a fine of $10,000 to $100,000, and forfeiture of a yet-to-be-determined portion of the misspent $750,000 in campaign funds.

( PHOTOS: Jesse Jackson Jr.'s career)

Jackson’s wife, former Chicago Alderman Sandi Jackson, has also pled guilty to one count of filing false joint tax returns, according to court documents. She faces up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine. At different times, Sandi Jackson served as her husband’s campaign manager and campaign treasurer. Both Jacksons resigned from office amid the Justice Department’s investigation into their finances. The couple has two children.

Jackson, Jr., issued a statement through his attorneys on Friday afternoon apologizing for his actions.

“Over the course of my life I have come to realize that none of us are immune from our share of shortcomings and human frailties. Still I offer no excuses for my conduct and I fully accept my responsibility for the improper decisions and mistakes I have made,” Jackson said. “To that end I want to offer my sincerest apologies to my family, my friends and all of my supporters for my errors in judgment and while my journey is not yet complete, it is my hope that I am remembered for the things that I did right.”

The allegations against the Jacksons represent a breathtaking scheme to re-appropriate donors’ money to finance trips and luxuries, pay bills and even send the couple’s children to school. Unlike many scandals that have ensnared elected officials, this brazen tale of personal enrichment doesn’t involve public money.

It’s a story of a Chicago power couple that lost track of the line between campaign cash and personal funds in a spiral of money troubles. The government will allege the Jacksons lied on campaign finance and House financial disclosure forms to cover up the fact that they were using campaign money to build a lifestyle way beyond their means. Federal investigators sank their teeth into the couple, even conducting an apparent sting operation in August 2012. An undercover employee bought two mounted elk heads that Jackson Jr. had bought from a Montana taxidermist with campaign funds.

The $750,000 in alleged misspent campaign funds included thousands of individual transactions that ranged from airplane tickets, booze and cigars to groceries.

Jackson Jr. repeatedly used campaign funds to pay down the couple’s credit-card balances. In one instance, Jackson Jr.’s campaign paid Sandi Jackson’s business $36,000 for “billboard expenses.” A week later, prosecutors say, Sandi Jackson transferred the same amount from her business to the Jacksons’ personal account, from which it was used to pay down personal debts.

The Jacksons used campaign funds to cover even the most basic of necessities, including cleaning supplies, bathrobes, underwear, toilet paper, toothpaste, soap, vitamins and stuffed animals, among other things, according to prosecutors. They also spent freely on luxuries, including home electronics, a trip to a Martha’s Vineyard spa for a member of Sandi Jackson’s family, Walt Disney World transportation services and charges of more than $4,000 on a 2006 cruise, court documents allege.

Jackson Jr. used campaign funds to overpay an aide identified as “Person A” so that “Person A” could give money to the Jacksons and pay their bills, the Justice Department alleges. To cover the couple’s tracks, Jackson Jr. made false reports to the Federal Election Commission and the House of Representatives, according to the filing. While the identity of “Person A” in not disclosed in the court documents, details in the filing and campaign finance records suggest that it is Terry Jones, a third cousin of Jackson Jr.

If, as expected, Jackson pleads guilty, he is likely to join a growing list of congressmen who ended up in jail. This includes former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.), Bob Ney (R-Ohio), William Jefferson (D-La.), Jim Traficant (I-Ohio) and Frank Ballance (D-N.C.). A number of other politicians were the focus of criminal probes but were never charged.

Jackson, Jr., who turns 48 next month, was once a high-flying House Democrat. Smart, ambitious, with a famous father and a safe district, Jackson Jr. had considered running for a House Democratic leadership spot or the Senate.

The charges against Jackson Jr. were filed in Washington as President Barack Obama, a beneficiary of Jackson Jr.’s political help early in his career, visited their shared hometown of Chicago to make the case for new gun control legislation. Jackson Jr., who knew first lady Michelle Obama in his childhood, was a co-chairman of Obama’s first presidential campaign in 2008.

But his career began to unravel in 2008, after then-Sen. Barack Obama was elected president.

Jackson Jr. became caught up in the scandal surrounding now-imprisoned former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Shortly after Obama’s victory, Jackson pressed Blagojevich about being appointed to that seat. Jackson reportedly directed an associate, Illinois businessman Raghuveer Nayak, to inform Blagojevich that he would raise $6 million for the governor’s reelection campaign in return for the Senate appointment, according to a report by the Office of Congressional Ethics. Jackson vehemently denied the allegation.

Nayak also paid for two round-trip airline tickets for a “social acquaintance” of Jackson’s, a Washington restaurant hostess, to fly to Chicago. In September 2010, Jackson issued a public apology for his interaction with the woman but never explicitly admitted to an extramarital affair.

While Jackson Jr. was never charged in that case, he was dogged by questions over his role in the Blagojevich affair. Nayak was indicted June 20 by the Justice Department on a variety of federal tax and fraud charges. Jackson Jr. already had disappeared from public view by that time. His office later reported that he was being treated for bipolar disorder. Jackson Jr. won reelection in November, although he resigned soon afterward. Jackson’s attorneys acknowledged at that time that he was cooperating with the Justice Department on a possible plea deal. By last week, Chicago media outlets were reporting that agreement would include “significant jail time” for Jackson Jr.

If Jackson goes to prison, he’ll again follow in the footsteps of his predecessor in the House. In 1994, Democratic Illinois Rep. Mel Reynolds was indicted on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old campaign worker. Although Reynolds won reelection that November despite the scandal, he was convicted the following year of sexual assault, obstruction of justice and solicitation of child pornography. Reynolds resigned Oct. 1, 1995, and Jackson Jr. won the special election to replace him.

Now Reynolds — who was soundly defeated by Jackson Jr. in a 2004 primary — has been publicly defending Jackson Jr., accusing the Justice Department of unfairly pursuing its case against the family.