Are We Criminalizing Politics as Usual? Case Against Former Virginia Governor

March 5, 2014

Political leaders and their supporters routinely use the trading of favors to gain and maintain power. Politics in our own era is no exception. This article examines the law of honest services fraud, used to fight public corruption, in the context of the January 2014 indictment of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell. The case raises important questions about where the line should be drawn between ordinary politics and criminal misconduct.