Former New Orleans Mayor Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Former New Orleans Mayor Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

He's the same guy who initially screwed up the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. George Bush got blamed for that, but the reality is that Nagin had ignored federal and state offers of help and a recommendation to evacuate the city. The local newspaper reported that Nagin stopped short of ordering a mandatory evacuation because of concerns about the city's liability for closing hotels and other businesses. After the devastation, Nagin publicly criticized the federal and state response, and people were only too happy to believe it was George Bush's fault because - well, because George was usually screwing something up, so why would this be different? (And Bush's "Heckuva job, Brownie" - to the guy who botched the Federal relief effort - didn't help his case any.)

Nagin was convicted of corruption. some of it directly related to Katrina. Nagin was convicted on 20 out of 21 charges stemming from having accepted bribes, many of them involving contracts for post-Katrina rebuilding. (Some of the crimes in question occurred before Katrina as well.)