Every corrupt politician now has a get-out-of-jail-free card
Will the courts ever again hold a corrupt political official to account? It appears unlikely, now that Sen. Bob Menendez has become the latest beneficiary of the US Supreme Court’s “get out of jail free” card.
In an abrupt reversal, the US Justice Department last week asked a federal judge to drop all remaining corruption charges against the Jersey Democrat.
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This, after another judge dismissed seven of the 18 counts against Menendez and Dr. Salomon Melgen, saying: “There is no there there.”
And after the first trial ended with a hung jury.
Legal experts say prosecutors had little choice: Their case was almost entirely circumstantial, with no cooperating witness, no tape recordings and no videotapes.
The judge himself said prosecutors failed to produce any “facts, either direct or circumstantial,” to prove a quid pro quo: that Melgen lavished expensive gifts on the senator in exchange for political favors.
And yet no one denies that Menendez received such gifts — including free vacations and $750,000 in campaign contributions. Just as no one denied that Menendez personally interceded on Melgen’s behalf on numerous occasions, including visa applications for his foreign “girlfriends.”
But both men insisted there was no corrupt bargain — and that everything was done as part of their 20-year friendship.
And therein lies the problem: In its 2016 McDonnell decision, the Supreme Court leaned over backwards to defend the right of public officials to conduct routine constituent services, even for donors, and essentially give them the benefit of the doubt in judging any such transaction.
But in the process, notes Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, the decision “pretty much ignored the interests of citizens in honest government and the dangers of allowing officeholders to sell their office.”
Yes, good friends give each other presents. But elected officials don’t “routinely” get Rolex watches and free luxury vacations.
Already, the Supreme Court ruling has freed William Jefferson, the Louisiana congressman caught with $90,000 cold cash in his freezer.
McDonnell’s impact also tossed the convictions of New York’s two top former legislative leaders, Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos, and may well make it difficult to convict them in their retrials this spring. And it likely played a critical role in prosecutors’ decision not to bring charges against Mayor de Blasio.
Was Bob Menendez’s relationship with Salomon Melgen corrupt? Ten of the 12 jury members who heard the evidence thought he should be acquitted. But it’s clear that corrupt officials are skating free.
It’s up to Congress to tighten the honest-services laws to ensure that officials face justice for corruption. But it’s going to take a lot of public anger to get lawmakers to make it easier to convict . . . them.