Reader Ad Slot
Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
John Murtha — Part 28
Page 59
59 / 137
While there may be-"tinducements" that are "over-
whelming", such as a threat against the life of a loved
one, when the inducement is nothing but money or other
personal gain, this court does not believe that. the size
of the inducement should be a determinative factor in whether’
a public official can be prosecuted for accepting it. .
No matter how much money is offered to a government official
as a bribe or gratuity, ‘he should be punished if he accepts.
It may be true, as has been suggested to the court, that
"every man has his price"; but when that price is money |
only, the public official should be required to. pay the
penalty when he gets caught. In short, as a matter of
law, the amount of the financial inducements here could
not render the agents' conduct outrageous or unconstitution-
al,
But even if the size of the inducements were |
-relevant, on the facts here they do not approach "overwhelm~
ing". The undercover agents were dealing with members.
of Congress, sophisticated people who function at the highest
level of our government. In these inflationary times, _
$50,000 is simply not an overpowering sum of money. The
agents sought to keep the bribes reasonable and realistic
in light of all the circumstances, and the sheer Length
of time Abscam ran without raising suspicions or being — -
Reveal the original PDF page, then click a word to highlight the OCR text.
Community corrections
No user corrections yet.
Comments
No comments on this document yet.
Bottom Reader Ad Slot
Bottom Reader Ad Slot placeholder
If you would like to support SpookStack without paying out of pocket, please consider allowing advertising cookies. It helps cover hosting costs and keeps the archive free to browse. You can change this choice at any time.
Continue Exploring
Agency Collection
Explore This Archive Cluster
Broad Topic Hub
Topic Hub
letter
bureau
Related subtopics
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic
Subtopic