1

What are congress members allowed/prevented from doing for groups who have donated to them in the past?

I would assume that congress members are allowed to have meetings with prior-donors. I would guess however that they cannot directly advocate legislation to simply benefit their donors, but am unsure as to what the gray line is (i.e. if they agree with what donor is advocating, then assume ok).

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

I would guess however that they cannot directly advocate legislation to simply benefit their donors,

They can't provide services in return for contributions, but they can still advocate for legislation that will benefit their donors. To prove bribery, a prosecution has to prove three things:

  1. That the money was received.
  2. That the service was provided.
  3. That the reason that the service was provided was that money had been received as payment for providing that service.

The first two are generally much easier to prove than the third. The "quid pro quo" standard can be difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Note that an obvious defense argument would be that the legislator would have voted the same way without the money.

Example source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bennett-l-gershman/bribery-cases-_b_1590284.html

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    My understanding is that it's all a kind of "friendship" thing. No-one agrees to do something in exchange, it's more like both parties keep doing things for each other as a continuous relationship. One side stops, the other side stops, but generally they do actually keep a personal relationship going as well.
    – PointlessSpike
    Mar 4, 2016 at 9:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .