Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed briefly addressed a federal bribery case involving city contracts Thursday, saying the city and its attorneys have been cooperating with federal investigators for months and will "let the facts go wherever they go."
E.R. Mitchell Jr., a prominent city contractor, is expected to plead guilty to bribery and money laundering charges before the end of the month, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta said this week. His charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta portray city contracts as being for sale.
Mitchell allegedly conspired with an unnamed individual in the construction industry to pay more than $1 million in bribes to another unnamed person connected to the city.
The mayor took one question about the case the media after an Invest Atlanta meeting Thursday morning before ending the interview.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to respect my city attorney because she’s been handling that process,” Reed said. “But let me make something very clear to the people of Atlanta: We have been cooperating and supporting the work of the U.S. Attorney for months.
“So we’ve been supporting that work and we’re going to let the facts go wherever they go,” he said.
The charging documents say Mitchell believed some of the money would go to one or more city officials with influence over government contracts. The scheme allegedly occurred from 2010 to 2015.
E.R. Mitchell Company and its subsidiaries have taken part in major government construction projects for the DeKalb and Fulton county school systems, the city of Atlanta, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and the Georgia World Congress Center.
