J.J. Cafaro’s ‘I made a mistake’ is a joke

J.J. Cafaro’s written statement about his latest illegal activity is laughable in so many ways.

My favorite is “I made a mistake.”

There are numerous examples of what the typical person considers a mistake.

But committing your second felony is not a mistake.

It is something purposely done because of your arrogance. You can also throw in stupidity.

What makes the “mistake” claim particularly galling is it happened between May and July 2004, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Less than two years earlier in November 2002, a federal judge sentenced Cafaro to 15 months’ probation and fined him $150,000 for “providing an unlawful gratuity” to James A. Traficant Jr., when he was a congressman.

Cafaro gave Traficant $40,000 in cash and boat repairs, including $13,000 stuffed in an envelope while the two were in a car to help a company the former owned get a federal contract. [The company didn’t get a contract from the government.]

A Cafaro giving cash to a politician in an envelope in a car? Hmm, that sounds sort of familiar.

Cafaro, who recently retired as executive vice president of his family-owned shopping center development company, apparently learned nothing from the first conviction.

This doesn’t include Cafaro’s admission that he committed perjury in the 1999 corruption trial of former Mahoning County Sheriff Phil Chance.

The federal government never charged Cafaro in connection with that admission.

The federal government filed a bill of information Monday charging Cafaro with a felony, making a materially false statement.

Just a few months after Cafaro’s probation ended, he gave $12,000 to an official of his daughter’s 2004 congressional campaign as a contribution and told that person to falsely report he only gave $2,000.

During 2004, the most a person could give to a congressional campaign was $2,000 for the primary and $2,000 for the general election. J.J. maxed out.

Cafaro gave the additional $10,000 in the form of a loan to that campaign official.

The feds say that $10,000 went toward the campaign’s benefit.

Cafaro’s daughter, Capri, a Democrat, lost by 26 percentage points in the general election to incumbent Republican Steven C. LaTourette. Capri is now the Ohio Senate minority leader.

Let’s get back to her dad.

There is stupid and then there’s STUPID.

J.J. is no genius, but he’s not STUPID.

Capri, who is not charged in this matter and said she was completely unaware of what her father did, spent more than $2 million of her own money on that failed congressional campaign.

Does someone with that kind of money need her father to give $10,000 to her campaign?

That’s pocket change.

There has to be a further explanation. I find it difficult to believe the $10,000 was directly used by the campaign.

Also, this was a very sloppy congressional campaign — and still is; read my “On the Side” — that didn’t show a basic understanding of addition, much less campaign finance laws.

During a July 2004 review of Cafaro’s congressional reports, I discovered Cafaro’s sister, Renee, had given the campaign more than $20,000, again far exceeding the $2,000 limit.

I brought it to the attention of the Federal Election Commission and the campaign.

The campaign was forced to refund the money to Renee.

In a 2004 letter to the FEC, Ron Silvestri wrote that various mistakes were made by staff members “who either were unaware of the law, or in some cases, misunderstood the law’s requirements.”

J.J.’s “mistake” is a lot worse than all the other errors because the feds caught him and say the $10,000 was purposely concealed.

As Capri told her dad after she lost another congressional district race in 2006: “Daddy, you are such a liability.”