John Jenrette

John Jenrette
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 6th district
In office January 3, 1975 – December 10, 1980
Preceded by	Edward Lunn Young
Succeeded by	John Light Napier
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from the Horry County district
In office 1964–1972
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	John Wilson Jenrette Jr. (1936-05-19)May 19, 1936 Conway, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	March 17, 2023(2023-03-17) (aged 86)
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Sarah Louise Jordan ​ ​ (m. 1960; div. 1975)​ Rita Carpenter ​ ​ (m. 1976; div. 1981)​ marriage Rosemary Long 1992
Education	Wofford College (BA) University of South Carolina (LLB)

John Wilson Jenrette Jr. (May 19, 1936 – March 17, 2023) was an American politician from South Carolina, best known for his involvement in the Abscam corruption scandal, and being the husband of actress and model Rita Jenrette. He was in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from January 1975 until December 1980. He was convicted of accepting a bribe in the FBI's Abscam operation.

Biography

Jenrette was born in Conway, South Carolina, in 1936 and grew up in Loris, South Carolina. He graduated from Loris High School in 1954. He then earned a B.A. at Wofford College in 1958. He served on active duty as a U.S. Army officer and then served several years in the South Carolina National Guard. After graduating from law school at the University of South Carolina in 1962, he founded an influential law firm in North Myrtle Beach.

South Carolina House of Representatives

Jenrette was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1964, where he represented Horry County, South Carolina, which includes Myrtle Beach. He retired from the state house to run for a seat in the U.S. House in 1972. While in the state legislature, he spearheaded the transformation of a small two-year University of South Carolina branch into a full-service four-year college that is now Coastal Carolina University. He initiated the effort to convert the old post office building in Columbia into a facility for the State Supreme Court, and persuaded the U.S. Air Force to allow commercial air traffic at the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. This marked the beginning of what is now Myrtle Beach International Airport.

U.S. House of Representatives

Jenrette defeated the seventeen-term Congressman John L. McMillan in the primary, but lost the general election to the Republican, Edward Lunn Young. Undaunted, he again ran for the seat in 1974. In part because of the extreme unpopularity of Republican Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, Jenrette won.

Jenrette, a liberal, seemed out of place representing his rather conservative rural congressional district. However, he was locally well-known and the South Carolina Republican Party was not especially well-organized at the time in that part of the state. Jenrette easily defeated Young again in 1976 and was unopposed in 1978.

The newly-elected Congressman John Jenrette was selected to join the House Majority leadership team as a Deputy Whip shortly after arriving in Washington, and he served on the Democratic leadership team as a Deputy Whip for all six years he served in Congress. He served first on the House Agriculture Committee and then on the prestigious House Appropriations Committee. He was the founder and first Chairman of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus. Jenrette placed great emphasis on constituent service, and he and his staff were widely recognized as the most responsive office the Sixth District had ever seen. Among his many constituent services was securing federal funding for a high span bridge over the Sampit River in Georgetown, allowing sea-going vessels to travel upstream.

Jenrette is most famous for two things during his days as a Congressman. First, he allegedly had sex with his then-wife, Rita Jenrette, behind a pillar on the steps of the Capitol Building during a break in a late night session of Congress. (The comedy group "Capitol Steps" take its name from this escapade.)

Second, he was charged with and convicted of accepting a $50,000 bribe in the FBI sting operation known as Abscam which was conducted in 1980. He was recorded saying he had been given a cash bribe by an associate. Jenrette was sentenced to two years in prison, of which he served 13 months.

His wife, Rita, separated from him in January 1981 and they divorced later the same year.

Jenrette was defeated for re-election in 1980 and resigned from Congress on December 10, just days before the end of his term. He subsequently ran a public relations firm called Lehuguenot, Ltd., in Myrtle Beach and developed property in nearby Cherry Grove.

Later

In 1989, he was apprehended after shoplifting a necktie from a department store in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia. Convicted of a misdemeanor, he was sentenced to serve 30 days in a local jail.

In 2017, the book Capitol Steps and Missteps: The Wild, Improbable Ride of Congressman John Jenrette was published. It was written by two of Jenrette's former aides, John F. Clark and Cookie Miller VanSice. While promoting the book, Jenrette described his years since Congress as including "marketing an experimental balloon-operated flotation device; running (and then folding) a national chain of timeshares; breeding horses in Bulgaria; and selling cigarettes in Eastern Europe immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union". He became a developer of major coastal property in North Myrtle Beach, and lived with his third wife Rosemary in a beachfront home in Myrtle Beach.

Jenrette died on March 17, 2023, at the age of 86.

See also

• List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes
• List of federal political scandals in the United States

External links

• United States Congress. "John Jenrette (id: J000099)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Profile from Congressional Bad Boys

Sources

• ""Destination Scandal" tour of DC". The Washington Post.
• The Hill, May 29, 2002
• The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), November 17, 1999
• The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC), July 22, 2000