Cleveland ? A former employee of Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. testified Wednesday that he gave the congressman thousands of dollars in kickbacks from his salary.

Allen Sinclair, the first witness to testify in the bribery trial of the congressman, said he burned the envelopes containing the money at Traficant’s direction. But, Sinclair testified, he saved some of the scorched scraps after deciding to tell the FBI.

U.S. Rep. James Traficant Jr., right, arrives at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Cleveland. Traficant's trial on bribery and racketeering charges opened Wednesday. The judge rejected a motion Traficant filed to have bribery charges dismissed. He argued that the Sixth Amendment forbids the court from trying him by using a jury from outside Youngstown, Ohio, the city he represents.

Prosecutors showed the jury 16 charred fragments that Sinclair said were the remains of some envelopes he had started to burn before deciding to cooperate with authorities and report the payments to the FBI.

Traficant, 60, is defending himself on bribery, racketeering and other charges, although he is not a lawyer. If convicted, the nine-term Democrat from northeast Ohio could be sentenced to 63 years in prison.

During his opening statement Wednesday, Traficant thundered in the courtroom, shouting: “I didn’t force anybody to do anything. You know what I did: I fought like hell for my people.”

Prosecutor Craig Morford told jurors the evidence would show Traficant “used his position as a congressman to perform and promise to perform official acts and in exchange he received free things.” Among the gifts Traficant is accused of taking are thousands of dollars of construction work at his farm and thousands of dollars in cash.

Sinclair, a Youngstown lawyer, said he took a congressional staff job in Traficant’s district office and was paid up to $65,000 a year. He worked about 20 hours a week, and in exchange agreed to pay Traficant $2,500 in cash monthly.

Sinclair said the arrangement continued from late 1998 until January 2000, when Traficant told him that the FBI had begun investigating kickback allegations.

After Traficant learned in late 1999 that the FBI was investigating him, he gave Sinclair several envelopes containing $16,000 in cash, Sinclair testified. Sinclair said Traficant instructed him to keep the money and burn the envelopes.

“I was afraid of him. I was afraid of what he might do,” Sinclair said.

The prosecution presented a handwritten note from Traficant to Sinclair that read, “They know you never gave me kickbacks. You lent me cash on several occasions.” The note also said the amount is approximately $800 and that Traficant was in the process of paying Sinclair back in cash.

Traficant told the jury the evidence would show that he has made “tremendous enemies within the government.” He said that from the day he beat federal prosecutors at a 1983 racketeering trial, he has been targeted by the IRS.

Traficant also warned jurors to be wary of government witnesses, saying they had been offered lesser penalties in their own criminal cases in exchange for their testimony.