Remember this phrase: “Honest Services Fraud.”
It’s under this theory and the underlying 1988 law that a lot of corrupt pols (and perhaps some not corrupt pols) have been sent to prison in recent years — Jefferson, Abramoff and a bunch of others. I’ve been hearing complaints about the law for a long time from defense lawyers. And you’d expect them to complain. But a lot of times I’ve felt like the arguments had at least some merits — even in some cases where the defendants in question were obviously corrupt (in layman’s if not legal terms).
And now it seems possible that a lot of those folks sitting in the slammer might get a chance to get out of prison — or at least get set up for some solid appeals — because of what happened yesterday in the Supreme Court.
