◆ SpookStack

and, worse yet, permit himself to be brought into strange surroundings to discuss private legislation with strangers representing foreign businessmen, and, worst of all, to ue if accept money under those circumstances. ‘The government's "use™ of Criden, Errichetti and Silvestri was no more improper than an undercover agent's infiltration of a drug ring in order to gain the canfidence of its members and obtain evidence necessary for conviction. US v. Russell, 411 US at 432. Like drug trafficking, traf- Ficking in corrupt political influence is extremely difficult to detect. In a bribery transaction, as with a drug sale,. both participants are satisfied with the result. There - is no "victim"; each side receives what it requested. The ultimate victims of drug sales are the users who become addicted and enslaved to an extra-legal system that forces upon many of them a life of crime, misery and death. While less dramatic, the consequences of bribery are more insidious. -No one suffers immediate pain; indeed, with a successful bribe, only the participants know it occurred. The overall consequences to society, however, are very dangerous. As Judge Newman noted on a pretrial appeal in the Myers case, [B]ribery is a secretive enterprise, not likely to be detected as long as the bribe giver and taker maintain. their silence. A sting operation,