Ford doesn?t take stand in his defense

Closing arguments began in the afternoon after Judge J. Daniel Breen and attorneys for both sides met in his chambers for a couple of hours after a lunch break.

One of the witnesses, Mina Knox, 26, said she was having a romantic affair with Ford and testified that she was with him on a trip to Miami in 2004, along with an undercover FBI agent.

The defense contends the FBI used that trip, which included a yacht party and fancy dinners, to set Ford up in a statewide corruption investigation called Tennessee Waltz.

Ford, 64, is one of five current or former state lawmakers charged in the federal sting operation, which was built around a fake FBI company known as E-Cycle Management that offered money for legislative favors.

Knox, an aspiring actress and former XFL cheerleader for the now-defunct Memphis Maniax, said she met Ford on the yacht, which is owned by the FBI, and spent the weekend with him in his Miami hotel room, which was paid for by the government.

Knox said she was in Miami for a film festival and was invited to the yacht party by Tim Willis, an undercover informant for the federal investigation. Knox said she continued her relationship with Ford after returning to Memphis.

Defense attorney Michael Scholl sought to use Knox’s testimony to undermine the credibility of undercover FBI agent known as L.C. McNiel, who made cash payments to Ford totaling $55,000, supposedly on behalf of E-Cycle.

Knox said McNiel partied with Ford in Miami and spent two nights alone in his hotel room with two different young women while on that trip.

But under cross-examination, Knox acknowledged that a statement she gave to the FBI made no mention of any such activity by McNiel.

“Did Mr. Ford ever tell you to make any of this up?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Loraine Craig.

“No,” Knox replied.

Federal investigators made hundreds of hours of secret audio and video recordings, and dozens of clips were shown to the jury.

Video clips from eight meetings between Ford and McNiel, who was posing as an E-Cycle vice president, were shown to the jury. Ford can be seen on those clips pocketing stacks of $100 bills counted out by McNiel.

Ford, a Memphis Democrat, also is charged with extortion and intimidating a federal witness. Willis, the FBI informant, testified last week that Ford threatened to shoot him if he was working for the FBI.

Ford also faces unrelated federal charges in Nashville on accusations of taking $800,000 in improper payments from state contractors.