Fed investigation into Edwards mistress $ is for “honest services fraud” [View All]

[Adelante]

Frank Perry is retired from the FBI and works for non-profit Foundation for Ethics in Public Service.

Feds probing Edwards affair
Thursday, May 07, 2009 | 11:58 AM

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“It is the FBI that makes a determination of that allegation, to see if it’s credible, specific and coherent enough to proceed,” he said. “I think many people wrongly believe US attorneys generate public corruption cases, but the initiation, the vetting, the working of the case, the FBI is driving that train and it’s done with a true abundance of caution, fairness, and you want to be as firm and fast as you are fair.”

In 2006 and 2007, Edwards’ political action committee paid Hunter $114,000 to produce videos of Edwards. Federal investigators are trying to figure out if those payments violated federal law.

Perry is not connected to the Edwards investigation, but says political corruption cases focus on a federal law - called “honest services fraud”.

“Honest services means that a public official has done something that deprives the citizens of the honest services they expect from public officials,” he explained.

-snip

“It can take some time to build a case,” he said. “And honest services case can take a lot of effort and can be extremely time consuming with respect to going through the financial records and following that money.”

While it appears the investigation is being conducted in Raleigh, Perry says political corruption cases have a lot of oversight - from both FBI headquarters in Washington and the Justice Department in Washington.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6801133

I actually don't see this getting anywhere in the end. Mistress or not, there was a product purchased from a legal company for use by the campaign. The job was fulfilled even if use of the product was limited. The only thing I see tripping them up on this is if the financial records were somehow finagled to wash the cash. I dunno.

Am I missing something? :shrug: