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It's Getting Chilly: Federal Courts Continue to Wrestle With Impact of Aggressive DOJ Public Corruption Cases

By Joseph F. Savage Jr. and Christopher J.C. Herbert
November 01, 2019

In an environment of aggressive federal prosecution and regulation both businesses and public officials are challenged to identify the permissible line between proper financial transactions — things like campaign contributions and business entertainment — and unlawful payments. And, in what the First Circuit called a "novel theory of Hobbs Act extortion," public officials now have to struggle with the scope of permissible advocacy — when does advocacy for constituents become extortion? United States v. Brissette, 919 F.3d 670, 684 (2019).

The federal regulators have long taken an expansive approach with regard to policing official / constituent interactions at both the state and federal level. For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has more or less methodically tried to limit these various assertions of federal power, by repeatedly imposing a quid pro quo requirement for federal criminal prosecutions.

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