Richard Painter Quotes

In some of the countries where we operate, there is a tradition of corruption, in which the political elites work with business in the framework of unsavory relationships.

Too often, they play to whatever group is the loudest down at City Hall, and they buy them off, essentially.

Nobody is immune to corruption. The difference is in how the society responds to corruption. Are the corrupt in jail as they are in Israel and most democracies. Or are they leaders in the government as in Palestine under the PLO.

When a public official accepts a gift he dissolves the pearl of independence in the vinegar of obligation.

We do have endemic corruption, but most of it is not political.

The mixing of politics and business not only is detrimental to politics, as is frequently observed, but even much more so to business.

Jack Abramoff is the world's best lobbyist - for the Federal Penitentiary System.

The Trump administration is shaping up to be one of the most corrupt since the Gilded Age.

President Trump is taking foreign money through his businesses, which is in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

What I see in Washington reminds me of what I saw in Montgomery when I was first elected Alabama's Attorney General. In Montgomery, corruption was the problem, so I assembled the finest public corruption prosecution team in the country. Their work wasn't always popular with the mainstream media or the local politicians. We didn't let that stop us.

There's some criminals that wear badges. Guess what? There's some criminals that work in the media. There's some criminals that are football coaches. There's some criminals that are politicians. There are criminals that work in churches.

Corruption in government is an overwhelming problem.

Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.

New disclosures were made showing again how Hillary Clinton's pay for play works.Saudi Arabia paid Bill Clinton a lot of money to make a speech and then got an arms deal from Hillary and her State department that they were unable to get.

Nothing short of a federal investigation can begin to disclose the abuses which have woven a fine web of mutually implicating relationships between businessmen and government officials.

Trump will not resign. But the allegations that are arrayed right now! The corruption is in our face. He changed his trust, supposed to have been a blind trust, which it was not, he changed it so that he could withdraw profits personally at any time from facilities that are being paid by the United States. It's corrupt.

Modi is shielding and encouraging fraud-accused persons such as Gali Janardhan Reddy and Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy. He is encouraging fraudsters, both directly and indirectly, and thereby helping open floodgates for corruption and frauds.

When grave allegations of corruption and criminal charges were leveled against me, BJP leaders chose to take it lightly.

Unfortunately, some politicians think they are immune from allegations of ethics abuse.

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.

Whoever is running the country should not be in the pay of a foreign interest. The best way is to see tax returns.

At one time in Montana, our elected officials were literally bought and owned by companies.

I've been concerned about ethics in government for a long time. And the problems we've had under President Trump are only indicative of the longer-term problem of the erosion of public office and government.

I look at the corruption in Albany and we cannot accept that.