A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the convictions of former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi on corruption, money laundering and other charges, rejecting his claim that there wasn’t enough evidence to support some of the allegations.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also declined to throw out Renzi’s three-year prison sentence after his lawyers argued that prosecutors had violated a clause of the U.S. Constitution that grants members of Congress protection for their legislative acts.
Renzi, a Republican, represented Arizona’s sprawling 1st Congressional District from 2003 until early 2009. He chose not to run for re-election in 2008 while facing the federal indictment.
