The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it will not seek a
new trial of the former Governor of the state of Virginia, Robert
McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell on charges of corruption.
A jury had found them both guilty in 2014 for receiving gifts of over
$175,000 from a businessman. However, the U.S. Supreme Court
overturned the convictions in a June 2016 ruling.
Government prosecutors, who could have decided to try the case again, announced on September 7th:
“After
carefully considering the Supreme Court’s recent decision and the
principles of federal prosecution, we have made the decision not to
pursue the case further.”
As a result, prosecuting corruption by U.S. public officials has just become far more difficult.
Lobbyists
and politicians can feel more confident that their myriad exchanges and
relationships are less likely to lead to corruption prosecutions.
The
United States, once an admirable leader on combatting political
corruption, has now fallen into line with the lax standards of
business-political relationships that pervade many other countries.
While
left-wing Democratic politicians, notably Senators Bernie Sanders and
Elizabeth Warren, rail against corruption in U.S. politics, the
mainstream Democratic Party officials at the helm of the Justice
Department have accepted an increasingly narrow definition of political
corruption.
The Supreme Court concluded
that the McDonnells did nothing criminally wrong when Virginia
businessman Jonnie Williams, Sr., gave them a gold Rolex watch, a
Ferrari, $50,000 in financial aid for their beach house and a
significant portion of the costs of their daughter’s wedding.
Newspaper
readers may be forgiven for believing this is the kind of political
corruption found in Third World or former Soviet countries – but it is
perfectly legal in the United States today.
Read more: US: Corruption Unchained - The Globalist
