The scandalous John and Rita Jenrette

John and Rita Jenrette were known for scandal.

John Jenrette Jr. was a Democratic congressman from South Carolina. He was convicted in 1980 of accepting a $50,000 bribe from an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of a made-up Arab sheik.

The scandal was portrayed by Hollywood in 2013 as “American Hustle.”

During his trial, John Jenrette took the witness stand in his own defense and said he was drunk when he discussed a $50,000 payoff with undercover agents.

A few months after Jenrette’s conviction, his wife Rita Jenrette said she would seek a divorce. She also posed in a Playboy magazine spread in 1981 and included a detail that she and her then-husband made love on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

About 30 years later, Rita Jenrette told The New Yorker in 2011 that the story of sex on the Capitol steps was a lie.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 11:40 AM with the headline "The scandalous John and Rita Jenrette."