Welcome. Good afternoon.

Volting some kind of fire ordinance in the air.

Anyway, my name is Buddy Cianci and I'm the mayor of Providence.

And as you know, I've been indicted by federal prosecutors today.

I want you to know I've had better Mondays.

It's April 2, 2001.

Mayor Vincent Buddy Cianci has just been indicted on 27 criminal counts,

including racketeering, conspiracy, witness tampering and extortion.

Many of you have commented on the length of the indictment and I have it here.

It's 97 pages. It goes on and on and on.

I'm not afraid of this. 97 times zero is zero.

And what is contained in this? It's nothing but lies, it's allegations, and I'm not involved.

And this would be one of the biggest challenges that I've ever had in my life or will ever have.

I didn't do this stuff. I'm not guilty of this stuff and I'm going to fight it as long as I can, as far as I can.

And I will go all the way to the Supreme Court, the A, where they want to go, because this is not true.

Mayor, Mayor, emotionally, what's this even like for you when you found out?

What I felt today, when I heard about this, I'll tell you what I felt.

I felt enraged, I felt mad, and I'll defend these charges until the day I die.

Are you nervous?

No, we're getting nervous, just be smart.

Mayor, we're having a new year.

In the last episode, we told you about Operation Plunderdome, an FBI agent and an air conditioning contractor went undercover to investigate Providence City Hall.

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