NEW ORLEANS — As Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams and an attorney in his private law firm go on trial for federal tax fraud, a former U.S. attorney says they have several avenues to mount a strong defense.
Williams and Nicole Burdett, a former attorney from his private law firm, are charged in a 10-count federal indictment with conspiring to falsify Williams’ tax returns from 2013 to 2017, allegedly by overstating business expenses from Jason Rogers Williams & Associates by $720,000 and by failing to report cash payments totaling $55,500.
The indictment alleges the duo wanted to reduce Williams’ tax burden by more than $200,000.
A separate indictment alleges Burdett overstated business expenses on her own personal tax returns by another $280,000.
Harry Rosenberg, who served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1991 to 1993, said federal prosecutors from the Western District of Louisiana, who were brought into the Eastern District to handle the case, will have a heightened burden to convince a jury that Williams and Burdett intended to cheat on their taxes.
“The initial and the primary (defense is) one of ‘we relied upon this tax preparer. We thought he was a CPA. He basically defrauded us, the defendants, and we were the ones who were bamboozled,’” Rosenberg said.
Aiding in that defense is the fact that Timothy has already pleaded guilty to cheating on his own personal taxes. The defense attorneys have listed Harold Asher as an expert witness they plan to call, and Rosenberg expects Asher to testify that Timothy did similar things to exaggerate business expenses to lower taxes for his other clients.
“That's always been part of the defendants' primary theme, which is, 'Look, Timothy did this with everyone. He did it with us, and we should not be singled out for it,’” Rosenberg said.
Another potential opening for Williams and Burdett: The government originally charged them with five counts of failing to report cash payments totaling $66,000, but Williams and Burdett were able to present evidence that caused the prosecution to drop one of those counts.
U.S. District Judge Lance Africk is presiding over the case after the original judge, Martin Feldman, passed away earlier this year. Africk has said he will not allow Williams to argue that the charges against him and Burdett are politically or racially motivated, as Williams claimed during his successful run for DA in 2020.
But Rosenberg said he expects the political and racial overtones of the case will be implied. The prosecution has already signaled that it could call Williams’ political rival and predecessor as DA, Leon Cannizzaro, to testify at trial.
“The most important aspect of it is what is the jury going to look like? I mean, demographically, what's it going to look like? Who's going to know the two defendants?” Rosenberg said.
In an initial pool of 94 prospective jurors, 71 appeared to be White and 22 appeared to be Black. Only 15 said they were from Orleans Parish, where Williams was president of the City Council and was elected district attorney in 2020.
But Rosenberg expects more from the surrounding communities in southeast Louisiana will know about Williams’ political career. All it takes is one juror who thinks Williams is being unfairly targeted to get a mistrial or acquittal. The government, meanwhile, must convince all 12 jurors that Williams and Burdett knew they were breaking the law with each count to earn a guilty verdict.
However, the fact that Williams and Burdett are both experienced criminal defense lawyers will make it hard for them to claim ignorance of the laws, Rosenberg said.
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