www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1
exclusive exclusive Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home Two Heavy Trucks, Helicopter Were Involved in Lawmaker's Trip at Height of Crisis Congressman Rep. William Jefferson visited his New Orleans home after Hurricane Katri na with the assistance of National Guard troops.
Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour o f the flooded portions of his congressional district. A five-ton militar y truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News th at during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressio nal district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's i nitial request. Jefferson defended the expedition, saying he set out to see how residents were coping at the Superdome and in his neighborhood. He also insisted that he did not ask the National Guard to transport him. "I did not seek the use of military assets to help me get around my city, " Jefferson told ABC News. They thought I should be escorted by some military guards, both to the convention center, the Superdome and uptown." The water reached to the third step of Jefferson's house, a military sour ce familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up o nto Jefferson's front lawn so he wouldn't have to walk in the water. Jef ferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers wa ited on the porch for about an hour.
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