Supreme Court makes it harder to convict for political corruption.

The Supreme Court's interpretation of a federal statute on political corruption will make it  harder for the prosecution to convict.  The ruling may encourage more corruption.  Congress needs to change the statute but must be careful not to facilitate conviction of innocent politicians.
"The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to vacate former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell’s public corruption conviction will significantly limit prosecutors’ ability to bring cases against politicians suspected of malfeasance and could spell trouble for the Justice Department in ongoing, high-profile cases, legal analysts said.
The ruling, which narrows what constitutes criminal corruption, will be an immediate boon for Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who is awaiting an appeals court ruling in a corruption case, experts said. Lawyers for former New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver (D) said the ruling also will be central to their client’s bid to overturn his conviction.
The facts of each case are different, and the high court’s decision in the McDonnell case provides no guarantees for anyone else. But lawyers said the Supreme Court has forced the Justice Department to reevaluate what it considers criminal when it comes to politicians interacting with those who give them money.

[McDonnell’s case might help others accused of corruption]

“It just raises the standard of prosecution to a very, very high level,” said Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at the George Washington University Law School who teaches an anti-corruption seminar. “I think it’s going to make it a lot easier for politicians to accept gifts and hospitality and payments in return for taking action.”

McDonnell, a Republican, and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September 2014 of providing various sorts of help to Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for $177,000 in loans, vacations and luxurious gifts. The former governor was sentenced to two years in prison, his wife to a year and a day.
McDonnell’s challenge to his conviction was largely based on the argument that he neither performed nor promised to perform any so-called “official acts” for Williams, and that jurors were instructed wrongly on what could constitute official acts.
Prosecutors had alleged McDonnell crossed the line by arranging meetings for Williams with state officials, allowing Williams to use the governor’s mansion for a luncheon on the day his product, a dietary supplement called Anatabloc, was being launched and personally touting the supplement to state human resources officials.

That was part of a broader effort, prosecutors alleged, to have Anatabloc studied by state researchers or included in the state’s health plan.
The Supreme Court ruled that jurors were instructed wrongly on the topic. An official act, the justices said, “must involve a formal exercise of governmental power, and must also be something specific.”
“Setting up a meeting, talking to another official, or organizing an event — without more — does not fit that definition of ‘official act,’” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the opinion. The justices remanded the case to a federal appeals court and left open the possibility that McDonnell could be re-tried if prosecutors had evidence to show that the former governor agreed to pressure state researchers to study Anatabloc or force the supplement’s inclusion in the state health plan."
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