Convicted in Abscam sting

Former Pennsylvania Rep. Raymond F. Lederer, 70, who resigned his seat in the House of Representatives and was imprisoned for taking a bribe in the FBI’s Abscam investigation, died of lung cancer Monday at his home in Philadelphia.

Lederer, a Democrat first elected to Congress in 1976, was videotaped on Sept. 11, 1979, at a New York motel accepting $50,000 in cash from two FBI undercover agents who were posing as representatives of a fictitious Arab sheik.

Lederer told the agents, “I can give you me” in return for the money, which was shared with several co-defendants. His attorney alleged entrapment, but Lederer was convicted in 1981 of conspiracy, bribery and other counts and served 10 months in prison. In all, six House members and one senator, Democrat Harrison Williams of New Jersey, were convicted in the Abscam sting.

A native of Philadelphia, Lederer won his first elected office, a state House seat, in 1974. The same seat had been held by his father and older brother and, more recently, by his sister-in-law. After prison, Lederer returned to his blue-collar roots, working as a roofer.