WSJ: A Supreme Court decision that threw out the fraud convictions of two political aides to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is rippling through other white-collar cases, possibly buttressing appeals by other defendants who say federal prosecutors have become too aggressive … Continue reading
Category Archives: bribery
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, American University Law Review). Here is the abstract: This piece discusses how the case Kelly v. United States, which was pending before the Supreme Court when this piece was written, was … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: A former judge of elections and Democratic committeeperson from South Philadelphia has pleaded guilty to accepting $2,500 in bribes to inflate the vote totals for three Democratic candidates for Common Pleas Court judge in 2015 and also accepted … Continue reading
Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman for Lawfare. … Continue reading
NYT: A top Democratic official said the witnesses — William B. Taylor Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, and George P. Kent, a senior State Department official — would lay out a timeline of serious misconduct by Mr. Trump and … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
WaPo reports. I wrote at Slate about why Collins is wrong about the law: Susan Collins Complains of “Bribery” After Nonbillionaires Try to Influence Her Kavanaugh Vote. … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer: A federal appeals court in Philadelphia on Thursday overturned U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah’s bribery convictions in a decision that offered a small measure of vindication for the former Democratic congressman — but may not dramatically affect the decade-long sentence he received … Continue reading
WSJ: A Long Island judge on Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of Edward Mangano, the former Nassau County executive accused of public-corruption crimes, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Federal prosecutors said they would retry … Continue reading
Politico: A top former FBI official accused President Donald Trump of acting out of spite against federal law enforcement after the president suggested Thursday he might commute former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year prison term. Robert Grant, a longtime colleague … Continue reading
Rod Blagojevich WSJ oped. … Continue reading
NYT: The scheme, as outlined by federal prosecutors, was audacious. Top officials in Nassau County used political clout to help a restaurateur obtain county contracts and millions of dollars in loans. In return, the restaurateur was said to have showered … Continue reading
NYT: Sheldon Silver, the former powerful Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly, was found guilty of federal corruption charges on Friday, less than a year after his first conviction on the same charges was thrown out…. Mr. Silver’s retrial … Continue reading
Here is the order list. I had thought the case presented a meaty issue, but this may have not been the right vehicle to address it. (He tried to raise a similar issue a few years ago.) … Continue reading
Bloomberg BNA: Rod Blagojevich’s lawyers want the Supreme Court to tackle that question when the justices hold their weekly conference Friday. The court could reveal as soon as next week whether it will take the case. Blagojevich’s former colleagues in … Continue reading
Docket. Here’s the question presented: When the Government prosecutes a public official for soliciting campaign contributions in alleged violation of the Hobbs Act or other federal anticorruption laws, must the Government prove the defendant made an “explicit promise or undertaking” in … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Five days after the Department of Justice announced that it would retry Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the judge in the case all but ripped out its core. Prosecutors, he said in an 53-page opinion, had failed to … Continue reading
WSJ reports, with the subhead: “Ex-Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano says it’s unfair to charge him with bribery, but not New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio because a businessman pleaded guilty to bribing both men.” … Continue reading
News today that DOJ, after a hung jury the last time, has dropped the remaining charges against Sen. Menendez (some were dropped by the judge after the first trial). Much of the reason for the problems with the charges against … Continue reading
Interesting New York Times report on Mayor De Blasio. Something stinks. … Continue reading
Politico: A federal judge has acquitted Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen on seven of the 18 counts they were tried on last year, just days after the Justice Department announced its intent to try the duo again … Continue reading
NYT: A campaign donor to Mayor Bill de Blasio secretly pleaded guilty in federal court to bribery, admitting that he used his contributions to the mayor to try to win favorable lease terms for a restaurant he owned on city … Continue reading
Long Beach Press Telegram: Legal scholars say even if Fox or another candidate dropped out of the race because of a deal struck, it would have been within the law. “You may think possibly this smells bad,” said Daniel Hays … Continue reading
Chicago Sun-Times: A group of high-profile Illinois Democrats have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s case. In an amicus brief filed Monday, the who’s who list of current and former Illinois Democratic congressional delegation members … Continue reading
NYT: The F.B.I. is investigating whether Representative Robert A. Brady of Pennsylvania, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, illegally paid a political opponent $90,000 to drop out of a 2012 primary race, court documents show. Two of Mr. … Continue reading
NYT: The trend began in 1999 when a Supreme Court case called United States v. Sun Diamond Growers of California chipped away at the government’s ability to prosecute officials for taking what are known as gratuities — or minor gifts given to them … Continue reading
NYT: The federal corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey ended in a mistrial on Thursday after jurors said they were unable to reach a verdict, leaving Mr. Menendez, a Democrat, free to return to Congress but injecting … Continue reading
AP: A juror who was excused from the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez on Thursday gave a glimpse into deliberations, saying most jurors favor acquittal and that she would have cast a not-guilty vote for the New Jersey Democrat … Continue reading
Important Matt Ford in The Atlantic: Menendez has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers argue the favors don’t rise to the newly heightened standard of official acts. Federal prosecutors, for their part, argue that the stream of benefits that flowed … Continue reading
NYT: The federal corruption trial of Senator Robert Menendez resumed Monday after a judge rejected a motion by the defense to dismiss the case based on a major Supreme Court decision last year that overturned the corruption conviction against a former Virginia governor. “We … Continue reading
NYT: The defense is scheduled to begin its case on Monday, but first Judge William H. Walls is expected to rule on a motion to dismiss it, a motion that he hinted he was considering during arguments in court about the Supreme … Continue reading
Gannett: The judge overseeing U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez’s federal corruption trial raised serious doubts Wednesday whether a legal theory that prosecutors have relied on to prove their case is still allowed in the wake of a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court … Continue reading
Another shoe drops, on the centipede that is the McDonnell decision. This time it’s former U.S. Rep. Bill Jefferson, from New Orleans. … Continue reading
A sizable story in the New Yorker: . . . Kasowitz, who by then had been the elder Donald Trump’s attorney for a decade, is primarily a civil litigator, with little experience in criminal matters. But, in 2012, Kasowitz donated … Continue reading
NYT: They were two of the most notable corruption convictions in recent political history, two entrenched New York power brokers seemingly brought to justice, their cases reverberating well beyond the wood-paneled walls of the Statehouse in Albany. And in a … Continue reading
NYT: In one instance, Mr. Menendez, according to testimony, met with two former high-ranking Democratic senators — Tom Harkin of Iowa and Harry Reid of Nevada — to discuss a Medicare billing dispute that would have cost Dr. Melgen millions … Continue reading
Politico: Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez allegedly starting taking bribes from a wealthy donor shortly after he entered the Senate in 2006, federal prosecutors assert in a new document. Menendez’s bribery and corruption trial is set to begin next week. In … Continue reading
NYT: When the 115th Congress returns to Washington on Sept. 5, Senator Robert Menendez will likely be absent: His federal corruption trial is set to begin here the following day. But when the Senate moves to vote on major bills during the … Continue reading
Opinion: After Silver had been convicted and sentenced, the Supreme Court issued its decision in McDonnell v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2355 (2016), which clarified the definition of an “official act” in honest services fraud and extortion charges. The … Continue reading
Morning Call: A federal judge on Monday threw out a case in the FBI’s wide-ranging pay-to-play investigation of Pennsylvania government, acquitting a wealthy investment adviser accused of bribing ex-state treasurer Rob McCord to get lucrative contracts to manage public dollars. … Continue reading
AP: —The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s appeal of his corruption indictment, setting the stage for a federal trial in the fall. The justices let stand a lower court ruling that refused … Continue reading
George Brown has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Virginia Journal of Criminal Law). Here is the abstract: The article begins with a discussion of the critique in order to put McDonnell in context. In particular, I examine what is new in … Continue reading
Release: Today, the Center for American Progress released a new report to address the threats to representative self-government inherent in special interest lobbying, revolving door politics, corruption of public service, and lax ethics and contracting oversight, as well as the major … Continue reading
Release: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, issued two decisions late yesterday in the cases of David and Stacy Cary, both appeals for bribery convictions relating to political campaigning. Both decisions acquit the Carys, ruling … Continue reading
Josh Gerstein for Politico: Sen. Bob Menendez is asking the Supreme Court to consider his argument that federal bribery charges he is facing impermissibly intrude into a legislative activity protected by the Constitution’s speech-or-debate clause. In a petition submitted to … Continue reading
Huge NY news: Federal corruption charges were announced on Thursday against two former close aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a senior state official and six other people, in a devastating blow to the governor’s innermost circle and a repudiation … Continue reading
WaPo: Federal prosecutors will not attempt to retry former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on corruption charges, ending a years-long saga that rocked the commonwealth’s political class and cut short the rise of a Republican Party … Continue reading
Nice Philip Bump on Trump-Bondi. … Continue reading