Justices Signal Limit to Corruption Prosecutions

“Supreme Court justices signaled they will put new limits on public-corruption prosecutions as they considered overturning the conviction of a onetime top aide to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo,” Bloomberg reports.

“Hearing arguments in Washington Monday, the justices questioned whether Joseph Percoco could be convicted of so-called honest-services fraud given that he was working for Cuomo’s re-election campaign — and not the government — during a key eight-month period in 2014. The Biden administration is defending the conviction.”

“Justices from across the court’s ideological spectrum said they worried the administration’s position would put influential lobbyists — and those who hire them — at risk of prosecution. Chief Justice John Roberts described the government’s arguments as ‘an effort to break down the concept of political power.'”