Court Opinion

ID: 9465668
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:52:39.156643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:18.427692
License: Public Domain

PELL, Circuit Judge:
I concur in the portions of this opinion prepared by Judges Tone and Sprecher.
*1353VII.

Weber’s Political Acquaintances

Henry Weber, brother of Franklin Weber, called as a Government witness, was permitted to testify on direct examination without objection that his brother Franklin was an acquaintance of Clyde Choate. He was then asked whether his brother was an acquaintance of Paul Powell to which he also responded in the affirmative. An objection was made, without any specificity, following the answer as to Powell. There was no motion to strike the answer and the “objection” as such was overruled. No effort was made at the time to demonstrate to the trial judge any particular basis for the objection.
Subsequently during redirect examination Weber moved for a mistrial on the basis of the Powell matter because “[i]t was highly prejudicial and has no relation whatsoever to this case.” The court in denying the motion, properly from our examination of the record, observed that:
the reason I let that in is that you cross examined several witnesses about whether or not there was any reason to believe Mr. Weber had any political connections, whether it was credible to believe that he knew anybody, and there again, that is something you opened up.
Without specific reference to Powell, Weber again moved for a mistrial following final argument. He now says that which he didn’t say to the court specifically that on the basis of Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) the testimony as to Powell was improper and prejudicial in the light of widely-circulated publicity of wrongdoing on the part of Powell when he was Secretary of State of Illinois. Certainly in any trial and particularly in a complex trial involving numerous defendants such as the present case, a lawyer should make clear to the trial judge the exact nature of the claimed prejudice, which was not done here. Even, however, if we assume what probably was a fact that the notoriety given to the Powell case some seven years earlier was such as to make it clear why Weber’s attorney did not want his client linked with Powell, we agree here with the district court that the door had been opened. Weber, not the Government, portrayed political associations, which he sufficiently indicated he did not have, as a unique requirement for accomplishing that with which Weber is charged.
For the court to admit relevant evidence in rebuttal on the subject was well within its discretion. See United States v. Eliano, 522 F.2d 201 (2d Cir. 1975); United States v. Jones, 438 F.2d 461 (7th Cir. 1971). C. Wright and K. Graham, Federal Practice & Procedure § 5241. The purpose of Rule 404(b) is to prevent “the use of alleged particular acts ranging over the entire period of the defendant’s life [making] it impossible for him to be prepared to refute the charges, any or all of which may be mere fabrications.” 2 J. Weinstein, Evidence 1405[04], at 405-39, quoting Wigmore, Evidence § 194. The defendant focused the proof on this issue and cannot complain of surprise if evidence of his political associations was introduced.
VIII.

jHenry Weber’s Grand Jury Testimony

Franklin Weber also objects to the admission of his brother Henry’s grand jury testimony at trial. Henry Weber testified on direct examination that he went to Vaduz, Liechtenstein, to negotiate two letters of credit given to him by the defendant. During the course of the direct examination, the Government attempted to introduce Henry Weber’s inconsistent grand jury testimony that he had never gone to Liechtenstein, testimony given two weeks after his return from that country at the first of his two appearances before the grand jury. The court would not admit the testimony on direct examination, however, on the basis that the trial jury might unfairly infer that the defendant had somehow been responsible for his brother’s falsehoods. When cross-examined by the defendant, Henry explained that because he was by coincidence going to Europe, he negotiated the letters of credit as a favor to his brother. Henry also testified that the defendant had *1354told him the letters “covered sale commissions for oil or Arabian interest or something.” The trial court then permitted the Government to introduce the grand jury testimony on redirect examination, and the defendant argues that the evidence still created the prejudical impression that Franklin Weber forced his brother to testify falsely.
Weber’s argument that the admission of this evidence was a prejudicial linking of the brothers Weber, however, shifts the focus from the basis on which the evidence was properly admitted. As the district court pointed out there need be no connection between Franklin Weber and the giving of the false testimony to the grand jury for that testimony to be admissible.
The trial court properly admitted the statement as nonhearsay, Fed.R.Evid. 801(c); see Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. 211, 219-21, 94 S.Ct. 2253, 41 L.Ed.2d 20 (1974), to rebut the theory of the defense raised by the defendant during cross-examination. During cross-examination, the defendant did not attempt to rebut the Government’s showing on direct examination that Henry Weber negotiated the letters of credit. The defendant instead attempted to impose upon the transactions the appearance of innocence. Once the defendant, again opening a door, attempted to create this impression, the testimony became significant as rebuttal merely because it was given, and not for its truth.39 The grand jury testimony, viewed with other admissible evidence showing that it was false, tended to establish that Henry Weber was aware that he was involved in improper transactions. See id. at 220.
In his reply brief, Weber argues that the Government has resorted to mere rules of impeachment to justify the introduction of the grand jury testimony. It is true that as a secondary justification the Government, citing Fed.R.Evid. 607, argues that it could properly impeach its own witness, although Weber does not argue otherwise.40 Although the impeachment aspect is one which enters the present picture, this aspect appears neither to be the prime thrust of the Government’s position nor the basis on which the trial court admitted the evidence. As the trial judge pointed out when the impeaching testimony was being discussed, the cross-examination by Franklin Weber was designed expressly to bring out that this was a routine transaction that the witness was conducting for his brother, nothing was wrong with it and there was no reason to suspect it. The judge then pointed out:
You didn’t have to do that. I had earlier ruled that this [impeaching testimony] would not be admissible. Having opened it up, I think the Government is now entitled to show that two weeks after he returned from Liechtenstein — and I hadn’t realized that it was that soon that he appeared before the Grand Jury — this witness said he had never been to Liechtenstein.
We agree with the district judge that the evidence was properly admissible through the open door.
IX.

Denial of Effective Assistance of Counsel

A second aspect of the Swiss letters and Henry Weber’s various connections therewith is the basis for a claim that Franklin Weber was denied effective assistance of *1355counsel. The gist of the claim is that evidence pertaining to the Swiss letters in addition to that discussed in Part VIII of this opinion not only further linked Franklin Weber with his brother’s first grand jury testimony but also constituted such a challenge to the integrity of Franklin Weber’s trial lawyer as to deny the defendant effective assistance of counsel.
Specifically, the proof to which the objection is directed is the testimony, presented during the Government’s rebuttal, of Assistant United States Attorney Michael O’Brien, who had conducted the preliminary grand jury investigation. The testimony described the following sequence of events: About a week after Henry Weber testified truthfully before the grand jury on December 3,1975, his second appearance, that he carried the letters of credit to Liechtenstein, Franklin Weber’s attorney had called Government counsel to report his client’s possession of other letters of credit. During closing argument, the prosecutor suggested, “Isn’t it interesting that after Henry Weber has all this recollection, then everybody is calling up and telling the Government about it, after the cat is out of the bag.” The defendant argues that this statement implied that defense counsel engaged in wrongdoing and therefore denied the defendant assistance of counsel. This argument is completely without merit. The cases cited by the defendant, United States v. Candelaria-Gonzalez, 547 F.2d 291 (5th Cir. 1977), and Zebouni v. United States, 226 F.2d 826 (5th Cir. 1955), concerned continuous derision of the defense attorney by the trial judge and are not in point. Furthermore, we have difficulty seeing how this testimony and final argument disparaged defense counsel. The Government’s questioning and argument were obviously for the purpose of rebutting the defendant’s exculpatory evidence that Franklin Weber had not learned of the grand jury investigation until “very recently,” and that he had been suspicious of the purpose behind the letters of credit, and that he therefore directed his attorney to notify the United States Attorney that he possessed more letters of credit.
We find no error in the admission of the rebuttal evidence. It was for the jury to draw such inferences as the evidence properly supported on the issues to be determined by the jury. The admission of this evidence properly bearing on what amounted to an assertion of a defense does not by any stretch of the imagination so impugn the defendant’s attorney as to make his assistance ineffective to the prejudice of his client. We find no suggestion in the record that the attorney had the information with respect to the letters any sooner than he provided the information to the Government.
X.

Judge’s Comment during Weber’s Testimony

Franklin Weber finally argues that a comment by the trial judge during his testimony constitutes reversible error. The defendant testified, “I can swear that I did not see Mr. Benton give him anything . .” The trial judge then said in the presence of the jury, “that is what you are doing in everything you say. You understand that.” Thereafter the matter was brought to the attention of the judge by way of a motion for a mistrial in which it was claimed that Weber’s credibility was seriously depreciated in the eyes of the jury. The court immediately stated that the remark was not intended in any such way and offered to make that clear to the jury.
The judge did fully explain to the jury that in reflecting upon the matter he thought he should not have made the statement and that he in no way intended to reflect or comment on Weber’s testimony or indicate any attitude whatsoever about the testimony. The judge also in final instructions made it clear that any comment by the court was not intended to invade the jury’s province to decide the facts.
Weber, while not challenging the completeness of the court’s curative instruction, argues that it did nothing to heal an incura*1356ble situation, stating that “A placebo cannot cure a terminal condition.” In candor, we regard this hyperbolic characterization as a desperate bit of straw grabbing. In the first place we would have had difficulty even absent the curative instruction in reading this remark as any indication that the judge was expressing disbelief in the defendant’s testimony. The judge, however, made it abundantly clear, if there had been any doubt, by his curative instruction that there was no reflection on the witness’s credibility. In any event, this was an isolated incident in a long and complex trial. Weber testified for two full days during which the jury had ample opportunity to formulate its opinion of his credibility without regard to what was at most an oblique passing remark by the judge. Courts generally, and properly, decline to reverse in comparable situations. See, e. g., United States v. Cardall, 550 F.2d 604, 606 (10th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 841, 98 S.Ct. 137, 54 L.Ed.2d 105 (1978); Gordon v. United States, 438 F.2d 858, 862-63 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 828, 92 S.Ct. 63, 30 L.Ed.2d 56 (1971); United States v. Allen, 431 F.2d 712, 712-13 (9th Cir. 1970); United States v. Wilkins, 422 F.Supp. 1371 (E.D.Pa.1976), aff’d sub nom. Appeal of Smith, 547 F.2d 1164 (3d Cir. 1976), 547 F.2d 1166 (3d Cir. 1976), 559 F.2d 1210 (3d Cir. 1977).
As the Supreme Court stated in United States v. Glasser, 315 U.S. 60, 83, 62 S.Ct. 457, 471, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942):
[An] examination of the record as a whole leads to the conclusion that the substantial rights of the petitioners were not affected. The trial was long and the incidents relied on by petitioners few. We must guard against the magnification on appeal of instances which were of little importance in their setting.
XI.

Sufficiency of Evidence as to Edwin Bull

The defendant Edwin Bull argues that the evidence against him was insufficient to sustain a conviction for conspiracy because of an absence of evidence showing that he had knowledge of the illegal purposes of the conspiracy. He argues that the statements of co-conspirators connecting him to the conspiracy were improperly admitted against him, and that if these inadmissible statements had been excluded, his conviction could not stand.
Bull’s theory of defense was that he was merely a “friendly and accommodating” businessman who earned a finder’s fee and a subcontract by introducing the In-grams to the contract opportunities available at the Sanitary District. Especially damaging to this defense, however, was testimony admitted at trial of conversations between Bull’s alleged co-conspirators concerning Bull’s role in the conspiracy. Benton testified, for example, that prior to receiving the contract, Ingram was having trouble generating sufficient cash to meet the demands of Sanitary District officials. When Weber learned of this problem, he instructed Benton to write a check for $25,-000 (the amount then demanded) payable to “Mr. Bull’s company, Bull Towing Company, and that he and Mr. Bull would handle this check and convert it into cash and take care of the staff of the Sanitary District.” Bull argues that without this statement the evidence merely shows that he deposited a check from Ingram for $25,000 in the No. 3 Bull Towing account and drew a counter-check for the same amount and received cash. Bull also declared this sum on his corporate and personal income tax returns and paid the necessary taxes. According to Bull’s brief, “[t]here is not a scintilla of evidence that any of these monies reached anyone else.” We hold that the co-conspirators’ statements connecting Bull to the conspiracy were admissible under Fed.R. Evid. 801(d)(2)(E) and that the evidence against Bull was adequate to sustain the conviction.
Rule 801(d)(2)(E) provides that statements of a co-conspirator made during the course of and in furtherance of a conspiracy are not hearsay. In United States v. Santiago, 582 F.2d 1128 (7th Cir. 1978), we held that the trial court alone should decide, as a *1357question of competence under Rule 104(a), the preliminary question of whether the proponent has submitted sufficient proof that there was a conspiracy before admitting a co-conspirator’s statement under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). For the statement to be admissible, we held that this preliminary showing must satisfy the preponderance of the evidence standard, and that the trial court’s determination of admissibility is final as to admissibility.
The proceedings below, however, took place prior to our decision in Santiago, at a time when there were ambiguities in the law about who was to decide co-conspirator preliminary questions and by what standards. See generally, 1 J. Weinstein, Evidence H 104[05]. In Santiago we noted that in this circuit the former standard for determining the admissibility of co-conspirators’ statements committed the question to both judge and jury. The trial court would admit the statement if the proponent made a prima facie showing, on the basis of evidence other than the statement, that there had been a conspiracy. The jury, however, was instructed not to consider the statement against another defendant unless they found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the evidence other than the statement showed that a conspiracy existed and that the other defendant was a member of the conspiracy. See also United States v. Rizzo, 418 F.2d 71 (7th Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 967, 90 S.Ct. 1006, 25 L.Ed.2d 260 (1970); United States v. Santos, 385 F.2d 43 (7th Cir. 1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 954, 88 S.Ct. 1048, 19 L.Ed.2d 1148 (1968).
The trial court in this case proceeded substantially according to the prior standard, described in Santiago.41 Bull, however, relying on Santiago language, which, of course, was not available to the trial judge here, seizes upon a part of the court’s instructions given during the course of the trial in connection with the admission of testimony of statements of alleged co-conspirators. It is true that the judge did say that the jury could consider such statements on the question of whether a conspiracy existed. Bull cites us to criticism in Santiago of “the view that the existence of a conspiracy could be proved by the very hearsay statement for which admission is sought.” 582 F.2d at 1133 n. 11. That was done here, he argues, and constituted “bootstrapping” proof which had been condemned by earlier cases.
This argument however, taking language of the instructions out of context, ignores the clear and explicit admonitions of the court during the course of the trial that as to any particular charged co-conspirator it was essential that he be proved a participant in the conspiracy by independent evidence before statements of others could be considered on the question of his liability.
Thus, on the first occasion during the trial that the subject was addressed, which was early in the trial, the judge instructed as follows:
There are two fundamental questions that you have to decide in regard to the conspiracy count of the indictment. The first of those questions is what is the conspiracy that is alleged by the indictment to have existed? Was there such a conspiracy? On that question you consider all of the evidence that I allow in and you make up your minds at the conclusion of the case as to whether a conspiracy, as alleged in the indictment, has been shown to exist as between somebody.
The second question is — and it is eight separate questions here — was this particular defendant shown to have been a member of that conspiracy. On that second question which you must answer in regard to each defendant, only those acts of that particular defendant should be considered to answer that question. You can’t decide that Defendant B was a member of the conspiracy, if you find there has been a conspiracy, on the basis *1358of something Defendant A said. It has to be on the basis of what you find Defendant B said and did.
Those are the two questions, and let’s just assume, generally speaking, that a jury in a hypothetical case finds Defendant B to have been a member of the conspiracy. All right, then and only then are the statements and actions of his alleged co-conspirators admissible against him. Provided they are acts and statements which the jury finds were committed in furtherance of the objectives of the conspiracy.
So, to recapitulate, question one, was there a conspiracy? Question two, was Defendant B a member of that conspiracy? Question three, as to any acts or statements of an alleged co-conspirator in considering whether you are going to consider that against Defendant B, was that act or statement committed in furtherance of the common conspiracy?
Only if you answer all three of those questions in the affirmative can you consider this act or statement of, say, Defendant A against Defendant B.
On analysis, all that the district court was really saying as to the establishment of a conspiracy was as follows: If there was testimony as to a conversation between B and C which reflected an agreement to violate the law, this testimony would be admissible as to B and C and would, if believed by the jury, tend to establish a conspiracy as to B and C. If during the,, course of the conversation either B or C had spoken of A’s participation this would not have been proof of A’s participation unless and until it had already been established by independent evidence, other than the statements of co-conspirators, that A was a participant.
While the quoted portion of the instructions above was perhaps repetitive, and we note its substance as to the necessity for independent evidence as to any particular defendant becoming a conspiracy member was repeated thereafter, it is evident that the trial judge was attempting to make absolutely clear to the jury by repetitive emphasis that the statements of others could not be considered against a defendant for finding him to be a participant in a conspiracy unless his membership had been otherwise independently established. From the record we regard this attempt by the judge to have been successful.
In sum, we fail to see any prejudice to Bull. The instructions on conspiracy as in the case of all instructions must be considered in the whole complex of instructions, and it was made perfectly clear to the jury by those instructions that even though a conspiracy had been established by all of the evidence which the court had admitted, the jury could not find Bull guilty as a conspirator unless his membership in the conspiracy had been established by independent evidence other than the statements of co-conspirators.
Further, and in any event on the record in this case, we are firmly convinced that apart from any statements there was overwhelming independent evidence sufficient to show the existence of a conspiracy. If there had been any error in the instruction it would have been harmless. Fed.R.Evid. 103(a); Williams v. United States, 119 U.S. App.D.C. 190, 338 F.2d 530 (1964).
Bull disagrees that there was independent evidence linking him to the conspiracy and asserts that the co-conspirators’ statements were therefore not admissible against him. As we have said the trial court instructed the jury that it must find beyond a reasonable doubt and on the basis of independent evidence that Bull was a member of the conspiracy before it could consider co-conspirator statements against Bull.
In reviewing the jury’s determination of the sufficiency of the independent evidence linking Bull to the conspiracy, we do not weigh the evidence or determine the credibility of witnesses. We will affirm the jury’s finding if there is substantial evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, to support it, Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 80, 62 S.Ct. 457, 86 L.Ed. 680 (1942); United States v. Buschman, 527 F.2d 1082, 1085 (7th Cir. 1976), and we therefore turn to an examination of that evidence.
*1359Robert Howson, an Ingrain Contractors, Inc. Vice President, testified that Bull came to New Orleans in March 1971 and told him that for a southern contractor like Ingram to get the Sanitary District contract, a political contribution would be necessary. Benton testified that Bull brought Benton and Weber together for a meeting later that month, and that the day after this meeting, Bull told Benton that “if [Benton] agreed with the discussion with Mr. Weber, he felt Ingram would get this contract, there would be no problem, and that he expected to receive $100,000 and Mr. Weber’s group $200,000.” There was evidence that Bull deposited a $25,000 check from Ingram, and withdrew the same amount in cash. Although Bull declared the amount on his taxes, there was also testimony that Bull insisted to Benton that his finder’s fee from Ingram include reimbursement for the taxes he paid on the check drawn to his company. From this testimony, the jury certainly could infer that Bull did not keep the $25,000, and from Bull’s insistence that Ingram be responsible for the taxes, the jury could infer that Bull’s laundering of the check was a favor for Ingram, to whom Bull had earlier suggested the need for political contributions in exchange for a contract. The testimony also showed that Bull’s involvement in the bribery scheme continued. When insisting on an increase in his subcontract rates, Bull was reminded by Benton in January 1975 “that this contract extension was a similar situation with the original contract and that Ingram did not retain all of the increase that would be reflected between the various unit prices in the two agreements.”
We have already found that the evidence that a conspiracy existed was overwhelming. In United States v. Robinson, 470 F.2d 121 (7th Cir. 1972), we noted that once the existence of a common scheme is established, very little may be required to show beyond a reasonable doubt that a particular defendant became a party. See also United States v. Harris, 542 F.2d 1283 (7th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 934, 97 S.Ct. 1558, 51 L.Ed.2d 779 (1977). From the evidence of Bull’s independent acts and statements, the jury was entitled to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Bull was a member of this conspiracy, and the jury therefore was entitled to use the statements of other conspirators against him.42 The discriminating conclusions of guilt and innocence returned by the jury in this complex case demonstrate that the jury studied the evidence with great care. See United States v. Kaufman, 429 F.2d 240, 244 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 925, 91 S.Ct. 185, 27 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970). We decline to disturb their verdict, holding that the independent evidence of Bull’s knowing participation in the conspiracy was sufficient to support the jury’s use of the co-conspirators’ statements against him, and that with such evidence there is no merit in his claim of insufficiency.
XII.

Bull’s Claim of Prosecutorial Misconduct

Edwin Bull also argues that during its closing argument, the Government raised for the first time an unfounded inference that he bribed someone in the Illinois Commerce Commission to procure a Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience for *1360Ingram. Specifically, during closing arguments the Government attorney made the following statement:
On July 27, 1971, Frank Weber and Ed Bull went through another series of transactions to generate cash very similar to what they did in April, to generate the $25,000. This time the amount involved was $20,000.
Frank Weber made out a Southwest Expressways’ check for $20,000, payable to Bull Towing. Bull took it to the bank, deposited it into the Bull Towing Company account, and wrote a check in that amount made payable to himself and received $20,000 in cash.
This occurred on July 27, ladies and gentlemen, the day before Ingram received his Commerce Commission Certificate of Registration.
During rebuttal argument, the Government added:
Would you put up Government Exhibit 1-12(A)..
That is a check from Southwest Expressways to No. 3 Bull Towing dated July 27, 1971, the same day as Government Exhibit 1-12(D) was issued. It is again a check to Ed Bull, and as the evidence indicates, Mr. Bull left the bank with $20,000. Benton had nothing to do with this transaction, but as you have seen from the notes that Mr. Weber wrote, there was apparently some sort of problem at the ICC, Illinois Commerce Commission.
It just so happens that the following day, Ingram is granted their Certificate of Convenience and Necessity by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Well, the bankers and those documents are not ghosts, and they begin to add up.
Bull argues that this suggestion constituted an unconstitutional amendment of the indictment and that it prejudiced unfairly the preparation of his defense. The defendant concedes that the evidence shows he converted a $20,000 check from Franklin Weber to cash on July 27, 1971, but argues that absolutely no evidence supports the implication in the Government argument that he bribed the Commerce Commission.
Although the prosecution, of course, must never refer to matters with no basis in the evidence, United States v. Morris, 568 F.2d 396 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Meeker, 558 F.2d 387 (7th Cir. 1977), the prosecutor may in argument suggest reasonable inferences from the evidence already admitted. United States v. Jones, 157 U.S.App.D.C. 158, 482 F.2d 747 (1973). Because of the secret nature of the crime, conspiracy is especially subject to proof by circumstantial evidence. We decline to require the prosecutor to suggest to the jury only conclusions supported by direct evidence.
During the trial there was evidence that the Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience was granted to Ingram the day after Bull converted the check to cash. Government Exhibit 11 — 1, a memo made by Weber, also admitted in evidence, indicated that Weber had made payments to the Commerce Commission on behalf of Ingram. On direct examination, Weber testified that he gave Bull the $20,000 check as a payment for a dredge, and during cross-examination the Government confronted Weber with the connection between the memo, the laundered check, and the issuance of the Certificate. Bull did not object to this line of questioning.
These matters admitted in evidence were available to Bull in time to prepare his rebuttal. The conversion of the $20,000 check to cash was one of the overt acts charged in the conspiracy indictment. The documents connected with this line of proof were turned over to Bull’s attorney ten months prior to the trial. Bull’s argument that this closing statement unfairly prejudiced his defense must therefore fail.
Our examination of the Government’s argument and the evidence supporting it also leads us to conclude that the inference created was that Weber, not Bull, bribed the Commerce Commission. The Government therefore did not stray beyond the confines of the scheme alleged in the indictment, which describes Bull in para*1361graphs 21 and 27 as having been a knowing conduit for the bribery funds. Furthermore, paragraphs 21 and 27 of the indictment describe in broad language the objects of the bribery scheme as “public officers and employees,” so that proof of bribes to Illinois Commerce Commission officials was entirely within the scope of the scheme alleged. Bull’s argument that any proof involving officials from agencies other than the Sanitary District amended the indictment is therefore without merit. See Stirone v. United States, 361 U.S. 212, 218-19, 80 S.Ct. 270, 4 L.Ed.2d 252 (1960).
XIII.

Claimed Error of Instructions on Travel Act

The defendant Frederick Ingram challenges the portion of the court’s instructions pertaining to the counts charging violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1952 (the “Travel Act”) insofar as the jury was told that under the Travel Act a defendant need not know or reasonably foresee that the facilities of interstate commerce will be used or that someone will travel in interstate commerce in order to be guilty under the Travel Act. The authority in this circuit is that neither the language nor the purpose of the Travel Act compels this showing of knowledge on the part of each co-conspirator. United States v. Peskin, 527 F.2d 71 (7th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 818, 97 S.Ct. 63, 50 L.Ed.2d 79 (1976). See United States v. Feola, 420 U.S. 671, 95 S.Ct. 1255, 43 L.Ed.2d 541 (1975). The defendant has offered no persuasive reason for a different rule. The use of interstate facilities merely provides the basis for federal jurisdiction. United States v. Peskin, 527 F.2d at 78; United States v. Bursten, 560 F.2d 779, 783-84 (7th Cir. 1977).
What we have said herein no way indicates that there is not a necessity for interstate travel or the use of an interstate facility. The court did properly instruct the jury that the Government had to prove:
(1) that someone traveled in interstate commerce, or used an interstate facility in furtherance of the bribery scheme; (2) that a person who caused the travel or use did so with intent to facilitate the bribery scheme; (3) that a member of the scheme thereafter performed or caused to be performed acts to promote the carrying on of the bribery scheme; and (4) that the particular defendant under consideration “was a knowing and willful participant in the bribery scheme at the time of the interstate travel or use of the interstate facility and at the time the subsequent act or acts took place.”
The fact that Frederick Ingram did not travel interstate or use interstate facilities or that he may not have known that others in the bribery scheme would do so is immaterial.
The judgments accordingly are affirmed.
AFFIRMED.

. The Government’s theory of the case was that Henry Weber did go to Liechtenstein to negotiate the letters of credit. Henry’s negotiation of the letters of credit in Liechtenstein formed the basis of Count 32 of the indictment. Because the Government was not trying to prove the truth of the out-of-court statement, the defendant was not prejudiced by lack of cross-examination at the time of the grand jury testimony. Anderson v. United States, 417 U.S. at 220-21, 94 S.Ct. 2253.

. The Government also points out that pursuant to Rule 613(b), the witness was permitted on recross-examination to explain the impeaching grand jury testimony by stating that he had been unfamiliar with the geography of Liechtenstein and because of that he had not understood the question at the time of his first grand jury appearance.

. Although the record is not clear, we assume arguendo that the trial court, in letting in the statements, applied the lesser prima facie standard then used for determining the existence of a conspiracy for purposes of admission, rather than the stricter preponderance test prescribed in Santiago.

. Although our decision in Santiago commits this admissibility question to the court in the future, we nevertheless apply the then current standards to evaluate the procedures at trial. The defendant has not challenged the submission of the admissibility issue to the jury. Furthermore, we fail to see how this “added layer of fact-finding,” although unnecessary, could prejudice the defendant. United States v. Santiago, 582 F.2d 1128, 1136 (7th Cir. 1978); United States v. Petrozzielio, 548 F.2d 20, 23 (1st Cir. 1977).
As we observed in Santiago, there is some danger of confusing the jury with the instruction because the judge essentially is telling the jury not to consider the evidence unless it has already found the defendant guilty. See Carbo v. United States, 314 F.2d 718, 736, 84 S.Ct. 1625, 12 L.Ed.2d 498 (9th Cir. 1963), cert, denied, 377 U.S. 953, 84 S.Ct. 1626, 12 L.Ed.2d 498 (1964). We do not regard the instruction as prejudicial, however, because it at least cautioned the jury against the dangers of using this evidence for improper purposes. 1 J. Weinstein, Evidence jj 104[05], at 104 — 45.