It was never illegal. Its called lobbying and it’s what billionaires have been doing for decades.
Restrictions on bribery are like gun control.
They will never wholly get rid of the issue, because they don’t address the core cause - but they reduce the tools available to the perpetrators, which has a positive effect of reducing the symptoms.
Lifting this restriction is minor, but also unambiguously bad, both morally and practically.
Has been legal since Citizens United, the mask is just off.
To clarify, we all know the Citizens United decision legalized bribery of Congress; this article talks about the removal of protections on bribery and revolving door practices in the executive branch. With those protections in place he might have had trouble filling his administration with his favorite billionaires.
There is a big difference between making something legal and not giving a shit about whether or not it is legal.
This is the latter.
You can’t legalize bribery via executive order, but you sure as hell can suggest you won’t be doing anything about it that way.
The media (and way too many people here on Lemmy) need to get it into their heads that U.S. law is irrelevant to the Trump administration.
It was illegal ?
No, the Supreme Court slowly chipped away at anything that bans corruption ever since the Powell Memo was written.
It was illegal before?
I thought the SC legalized it last year. Then again, so much crazy has come out of them these past years, it’s hard to keep track.
Congress legalized it in 2017 when they failed to impeach Trump on Inauguration Day for violating the Emoluments Clause.
Yeah just least year when they ruled on Citizens United. Oh…that was 15 years ago. Fuck, we’re so cooked
They went further last year in Snyder vs United States.
You can now give gifts and money to elected officials as long as you don’t explicitly mention what you want them to do for you. The law was already well undermined with Citizen United, but now the only thing that is essentially still illegal is the proverbial suitcase with money being handed over in exchange for services, and I’m sure that’ll go at some stage as well.
When wasn’t it?
And just like that, we got the blatant corruption of the US government. Holy shit! lol Well if it weren’t so tragic it’d almost be entertaining. I’m so sorry to all Americans. Truly, you’ve always deserved better than this.
No we didn’t.
I’m pretty cynical, especially when it comes to the Cheeto in Chief. As far as I’m concerned, this is the least damaging thing he’s done. Bribery is, quite literally, the least of the problems his presidency will create.
Another shocking development from the Lobster Mobster.
Make Corruption Great Again
It already was