Richard Painter Quotes
Here is where you get into the danger zone, when the government official starts talking about U.S. government business and then also talking about what personal business favors they might want. And when the conversation goes down that road, it does risk crossing the line into solicitation of a bribe.
Painter, Richard. Interview by Noel King. "Former Ethics Lawyer Discusses Emoluments Clause." Morning Edition, NPR, 18 Oct. 2019.
The bill went down to a narrow defeat, but the Republican leadership of the House held the vote open for a record setting 3 hours, until they could persuade enough members to reverse their vote. After the 3 hours, the bill passed by one vote. The House Ethics Committee did not see that as sufficient reason to start an ethics investigation.
When his wife Benizir Bhutto was prime minister, there was a perception of many Pakistanis that he was getting 10% graft on all government construction, development and purchases. After his wife was assassinated, he was elected Prime Minister, and the notorious nickname stuck even then.
Abramoff had bribed over 100 Congressional offices by a combination of campaign donations, paid golf junkets all over the world, free elegant meals at his own fancy Washington Restaurant, free tickets for the Congressmen, their staffs and their major constituents, to Concerts and sporting events including his own Skyboxes, and promises of future employment at very high salaries. Ironically, we was convicted of cheating some of his lobbying clients and did a jail term, but his “bribery” was technically usually legal. In addition to Abramoff, only one Congressman was charged and convicted of corruption, when many if not most had engaged in these corrupt practices. Congress makes the rules with loopholes so that what is bribery and corruption in any other setting is often not against the law if Congress is involved.
Richard William Painter is an American lawyer, professor, and political candidate. From 2005 to 2007 Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota, and since 2016 has served as vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group.
