Traficant, a nine-term Democrat from northeast Ohio, is on trial for allegedly helping businessmen in exchange for gifts and free labor and taking kickbacks in money and free labor from staff members. He has denied the allegations.

James Sabatine, former owner of Hardrive Paving and Construction Co., said he paid Traficant rather than have his employees work at Traficant's horse farm because he knew in 1998 that both he and the congressman were under investigation.

"I figured I'd be better off just giving him $2,400," testified Sabatine, who has admitted to a long list of corruption charges, including bribing public officials.

Outside the courthouse Wednesday evening, Traficant said "Mr. Sabatine is lying." He has repeatedly said he went to bat for any business or other constituents who asked for help but never accepted bribes.

Although he is not a lawyer, Traficant, 60, is defending himself. He could be sentenced up to 63 years in prison and could face expulsion from the House if convicted.

Rufus Dowe Jr., a regional executive with Norfolk Southern Railroad, testified he attended an August 1998 meeting at Traficant's invitation with the congressman and Sabatine to discuss Sabatine's need for low-cost limestone. Dowe said the railroad did not end up signing a deal with Sabatine.

But Sabatine said that immediately after the meeting, Traficant took him to the horse farm and began discussing chores that needed to be done. Sabatine said he knew Traficant wanted the chores done for free.

"When you did jobs for people in politics, you don't get paid," Sabatine said.

During cross-examination by Traficant, Sabatine admitted he had paid thousands of dollars in bribes to city and county officials, including $20,000 to a city engineer.

Traficant suggested that a congressman would seem to rate more than $2,400 on that scale.

Judge Lesley Wells abruptly ended Traficant's cross-examination and sent the jury home for the day as the congressman tried to show that Sabatine had made other campaign contributions in cash.

Traficant tried to refer to an FBI report of an interview with Sabatine, but Wells said he was violating rules of evidence in trying to use the document to impeach the witness.

"I would suggest you spend some time this evening going over the rules of evidence," Wells said.