Rifling Through the Home of a Corrupt, Jailed Congresswoman

(Composite / Photos: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via GettyImages)

Outside a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday morning, I informed the group of elderly women in line with me for an estate sale that the home we were about to enter was that of former congresswoman Corrine Brown. The Florida Democrat had served time in prison after years of legal battles with the feds, and the things we were about to spend our morning appraising and purchasing almost certainly belonged to her.

There were audible gasps among the eight or so women. 

“Oh my God!” said one. “I bet there’s good stuff in there.”

“If it’s real,” quipped another.

One woman was having trouble with the online sign up sheet to gain entrance to the sale. With assistance from another excited guest, she figured it out and secured her spot just before the doors opened and a hired staffer appeared. 

The staffer made sure the rules were clear: No bags allowed. Do not take any unsold items from one floor to the next. If you want to walk with it, you have to purchase it first. Lastly, the staffer warned: if you break it, you buy it. Then they let us through the front door, up the spiral staircase, and onto the primary floor.

In Congress, Brown served as ranking member on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. She was one of the first members of Congress to achieve internet virality for her poorly rehearsed floor speech honoring the University of Florida football team in 2009. She also was a magnet for scandal. Her more notorious episodes of impropriety include the gifting of a $10,000 check from an indicted National Baptist Convention leader and filing federal campaign reports bearing a signature from her campaign treasurer that had been forged by her chief of staff.

Brown’s problems culminated in 2016, when the Justice Department indicted her on 24 charges. They included fraud, conspiracy, and obstruction; the indictment alleged she created a personal slush fund with money meant for underprivileged students. She was convicted and reported to federal prison in 2018. She was released in early 2020 on account of health concerns amid the surging pandemic. Her case was later overturned on appeal, but in the spring of 2022, she pleaded guilty to avoid a retrial and was ordered to pay $62,650.99 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Inside Brown’s home, the former congresswoman was nowhere to be seen. Instead, those of us who came were surrounded by hired curators and sellers. 

There were two floors of boots, shoes, dresses, mink coats, bejeweled hats, and enough silk scarves to equip Dr. Deborah Birx for a month of TV appearances. There were hundreds of bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry arrayed in silver and gold and adorned with diamonds, turquoise, and other precious stones. 

At one point, I came across a basketball signed by several of the players from the 2002–2003 Washington Wizards (while he didn’t sign Brown’s ball, Michael Jordan belonged to that roster; they went 37-45 and finished 9th place in the East that season).