51 Facts About Rick Renzi

Richard George Renzi was born on June 11,1958 and is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing from 2003 until 2009.

On February 22,2008, Rick Renzi was indicted on 35 counts connected to land deals.

On June 12,2013, Rick Renzi was convicted on 17 of 32 counts in his corruption case.

Rick Renzi is one of five siblings born into an Italian-American family in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

Rick Renzi played football for NAU and was a starting offensive lineman.

However, according to an August 2002 Associated Press article, Rick Renzi said that between college, starting in the late 1970s, and his return some 20 years later, he had lived in Flagstaff for only a total of seven years.

Rick Renzi has owned a $765,000 two-story, six-bedroom home on five acres there since 1991, according to Fairfax County, Virginia, property records.

In 2006, Rick Renzi said that he decided to enter politics because of his experiences as a member of National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

In 1997 or 1998, Rick Renzi began to take law courses at The Catholic University of America in Washington DC He finished his coursework in December 2001 and graduated with a JD in 2002.

Rick Renzi moved his official residence from Virginia to Arizona in 1999, registering to vote in Santa Cruz County.

In 2002, Rick Renzi acknowledged that he returned to Arizona with the intention of running for Congress, but defended his state ties.

Rick Renzi noted that between college and his return to Arizona, he lived in Flagstaff for a total of seven years.

Rick Renzi said he owned more than 400 acres in northern Arizona through a real estate development and improvement business, in addition to a small vineyard and ranch in Sonoita, Arizona, west of Sierra Vista, in the 8th congressional district, and a home in Kingman.

Rick Renzi won a hotly contested Republican primary election against five other candidates; his closest opponents were Lewis Noble Tenney, a former Navajo County supervisor, and conservative radio personality Sydney Ann Hay of Munds Park.

Rick Renzi invested $585,000 of his own money and raised another $100,000 to run radio and TV ads throughout the district.

Rick Renzi received 24.4 percent of the 46,585 votes cast in the Republican primary, with half of his votes coming from Yavapai County.

Rick Renzi received significant support from the national Republican party in the race: President Bush visited twice, including a fundraiser; Vice President Cheney appeared at a fund-raising luncheon; Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton visited the district to support Rick Renzi; and so did Mel Martinez, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Rick Renzi campaign made heavy use of automated telephone calls throughout the district with various claims and innuendos about Cordova.

Rick Renzi's proposal was widely ridiculed, and he has not promoted it since.

On election day, Rick Renzi defeated Cordova by 49 percent to 46 percent, a difference of about 6,000 votes.

Rick Renzi spent $436,590 of his own money on the election.

Rick Renzi was fined $1,000 in November 2005 by the FEC for underreported receipts stemming from what his campaign called a software glitch.

Paul Babbitt's campaign was named a top national priority by most major Democratic fundraisers and liberal weblogs, because a plurality of Arizona 1st Congressional District voters are registered Democrats and because Rick Renzi won so narrowly in 2002.

Rick Renzi faced no opposition from his own party in the Republican primary.

Rick Renzi was named one of the American Legion's "Unsung Heroes" of the 108th Congress.

Rick Renzi was generally a supporter of expanded legal immigration into the United States and supported expansion of guest worker programs and the H1B visa.

Rick Renzi did strongly support using technology to enforce border security.

In September 2006, Rick Renzi was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-partisan watchdog group founded in 2005 by former Democratic congressional staffers.

Rick Renzi was listed in the first report by the organization in January 2006, when he was one of 13 named members.

Rick Renzi had been criticized for consistently introducing and voting in favor of bills benefiting his father's defense company, ManTech International Corp.

Rick Renzi's father, retired Major General Eugene Rick Renzi, was an executive vice president of the firm, until his death in February 2008.

In 2003, Rick Renzi sponsored legislation that put hundreds of millions of dollars to Eugene's business while, according to environmentalists, devastating the San Pedro River.

Rick Renzi claimed he introduced the measure to prevent the closing of the Fort and to promote its enlargement.

On February 22,2008, Rick Renzi was indicted on multiple federal charges as a result of the investigation.

In 2003, Rick Renzi sold the remainder of the business to Sandlin, for somewhere between $1 million and $5 million, according to financial records, retaining a "future development interest".

In October 2005, three years after the business transaction with Sandlin, Rick Renzi announced he'd be introducing a bill in Congress that would include a swap of land owned by Sandlin for federal land near Florence, Arizona.

Rick Renzi told the New Times that he did nothing wrong and that sometime after his announcement he recused himself from the bill after a lobbyist questioned his connection to Sandlin.

Investigators uncovered evidence that Mr Rick Renzi received a cash payment from his former business partner, funneled through a family wine company, after a second investor group pursuing an unrelated land swap agreed to pay $4 million for the alfalfa field, according to people contacted in the course of the two-year investigation.

Mr Rick Renzi denied any wrongdoing and said that he intended to cooperate with the investigation.

Investigators pursuing the Rick Renzi case had been seeking clearance from senior Justice Department officials on search warrants, subpoenas and other legal tools for a year before the election, people close to the case said.

In December 2005, Rick Renzi hired Patty Roe, the wife of Jason Roe, the chief of staff of Representative Tom Feeney, as his full-time administrative assistant.

Rick Renzi pays her $5,000 per month as a fundraising consultant.

Rick Renzi's office said those payments were for services rendered in 2005.

The argument ensued after Rick Renzi had learned that Kirk and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership commissioned secret polling in the districts of Rick Renzi and other members of Congress who oppose stem cell research.

Rick Renzi received $30,000 in campaign contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ARMPAC.

On February 22,2008, after Phoenix New Times columnist Sarah Fenske broke a story about the 2002 campaign financing embezzlement, Rick Renzi was indicted on multiple federal charges.

In 2011, Rick Renzi appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to stop his prosecution.

Rick Renzi appealed to the Supreme Court but it declined to hear his appeal so he was put on trial.

Rick Renzi appealed his conviction to the Ninth Circuit, but the court upheld the jury's verdict.

On February 27,2015, Rick Renzi reported to Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown West Virginia, to serve his 3-year prison sentence.

On January 20,2021, Rick Renzi received a full pardon from President Donald Trump during his last hours as president.