The charges against the three men were brought after undercover FBI agents posed as real estate developers looking to build a hotel in downtown Jackson. The agents made bribe payments to various officials for favors related to the project, according to court documents unsealed on Thursday.
Since news of his indictment broke on Wednesday, Lumumba has claimed the case is a politically motivated stunt designed to hurt his 2025 reelection campaign. Still, the mayor maintained his innocence during brief remarks to the press after his arraignment.
"I am not guilty, and so I will not proceed as a guilty man,” Lumumba said. "I will continue to handle the business of the city of Jackson while my attorneys continue to handle the business of these court proceedings.”
Lumumba faces five charges, including federal program bribery and money laundering. The alleged bribes Lumumba received include $50,000 in campaign contributions given to him on a yacht off the Florida coast. According to court documents, the mayor received the funds in exchange for moving up a deadline for submitting proposals to the city of Jackson for the hotel project.
Owens is alleged to have accepted $115,000 from the phony real estate developers in exchange for helping arrange the bribery of Lumumba and at least two Jackson City Council members. He faces eight charges, including federal program bribery, racketeering and making false statements,
Former Jackson city councilwoman Angelique Lee resigned from her council seat and plead guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery in August. Lee was wooed with cash and shopping sprees in exchange for voting in favor of the hotel project, which never came to pass.
Owens called the FBI's investigation "flawed" Thursday afternoon and said he will not be resigning as DA.
"We think the truth has to come out that cherry-picked statements of drunken locker room banter is not a crime,” Owens said.
What Owens calls banter includes bragging to the undercover FBI agents about how he could use the power of the DA’s office to facilitate and obfuscate illegal activity, according to court documents. In one exchange, Owens told the agents using his safe at the DA’s office made it easy to hide the bribe money they’d given him.
“Because if someone comes in my motherf-ing safe, it’s a million dollars in cash, it’s a million dollars,” Owens said. “You know what, if they come to my house, it reads like this “DA Owens had 20 grand in cash.” The regular people who vote for me, who give me $10 or $100 they can’t count that much money. But guess what, in my safe at my DA office I got a million dollars in cash, guess what, your f-ing ten grand doesn’t matter, your fifteen grand it doesn’t matter, I got a million dollars there. But guess what, at my house, it matters.”
FBI agents raided Owens’ office and a cigar bar he owns in May. In the office, agents found a lockbox designed to look like a hardbound copy of the U.S. Constitution that contained $20,000 in cash. Nearly half of that money had serial numbers confirming it was paid by the undercover agents, according to court documents.
Banks has been charged with conspiracy and federal program bribery. He did not respond to questions from reporters after his arraignment.
The three men's trial date has been set for January 6, 2025.
