An unprecedented leak of Pope Benedict XVI’s personal correspondence shows “tales of rivalry and betrayal, and allegations of corruption and systemic dysfunction that infused the inner workings of the Holy See and the eight-year papacy of Benedict XVI,” the Washington Post reports.

“The next pope may bring with him an invigorating connection to the Southern Hemisphere, a media magnetism or better leadership skills than the shy and cerebral Benedict. But whoever he may be, the 266th pope will inherit a gerontocracy obsessed with turf and Italian politics, uninterested in basic management practices and hostile to reforms.”

The Week: Can the Vatican survive in the digital age?

Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) implicated his wife, Sandi, in his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, CBS Chicago reports.

“Jackson will plead guilty to one felony count of misuse of campaign funds and then let a federal judge determine his punishment… Jackson’s deal calls for him to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars spent for things like travel and meals with a mistress and a $40,000 men’s Rolex watch he bought for himself. Jackson’s resignation from Congress was also part of the deal.”

“But Jackson’s pleading guilty to using campaign funds for personal expenses could expose Sandi, his campaign manager, to tax-fraud charges. The congressman’s guilty plea says Sandi knew about improper purchases that apparently include breakfast snacks, cosmetic services, even beds purchased for campaign workers.”

“The campaign manager for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), already facing a
state investigation over allegations of theft from Dewhurst’s political
account, has been accused of also taking at least $1 million from the
Republican’s U.S. Senate campaign last year,” the Dallas Morning News reports.

“A federal financial probe of the once-politically powerful Jesse and Sandi Jackson has evolved into two separate investigations, with federal authorities taking an independent look at former Ald. Sandi Jackson,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

“Included in the scrutiny of Sandi Jackson, who resigned from her 7th Ward aldermanic position last month, is her access and use of her husband’s congressional campaign money, including credit card charges, as well as the movement of money from one account to another, sources say.”

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s (R) son-in-law, a narcotics officer with the Philadelphia police force, is under investigation after he “was caught on hidden camera, taking money out of a car he was told to search. What Gibson didn’t know, according to sources, is that that the money was planted in the car by investigators,” NBC Philadelphia reports.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) was released from prison after six years in a federal penitentiary, NBC Chicago reports.

“Ryan, a 78-year-old father and grandfather, must report to a halfway house in Chicago at some point in the day. The former governor, convicted in 2006 of federal corruption charges, was given a strict schedule to get from the prison to the West Side facility about four hours away. There was speculation he left the prison early Tuesday morning to arrive in Chicago by 7 a.m.””

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) will spend the weekend in prison as a penalty for 14 parole violations, the Detroit Free Press reports.

A federal grand jury charged former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) with 21 counts of corruption, bribery, conspiracy, money laundering, wire fraud and filing false tax returns, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

Nagin’s long-expected indictment arrived more than two and a half years after he left City Hall and relocated to Dallas.

The AP reports that three sitting Illinois lawmakers are currently facing criminal charges.

“Illinois is no stranger to dramatic headlines about the nexus of
politics and crime in its highest offices — most recently former Gov.
Rod Blagojevich’s conviction for attempting to sell Barack Obama’s
former U.S. Senate seat. But experts and capitol veterans can’t recall a
comparable circumstance for state legislators since the early 1970s,
when several were rounded up in a bribery trial involving cement trucks.” 

The jury in the corruption trial of former Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill (I) declared themselves deadlocked, leading the judge to declare a mistrial in the case that was the first test of a 2009 law that criminalized what was once considered unethical conduct by public officials, the Boston Globe reports.

In a stunning move that could leave Toronto without a mayor, a judge has found Rob Ford flouted conflict-of-interest rules and declared the office of Toronto’s mayor “vacant,” the Globe and Mail reports.

The judge suspended Ford’s removal from office for 14 days because the decision will “necessitate administrative changes.”

Ford said he would appeal the ruling arguing his ouster was orchestrated by “a left-wing cabal.”

“A key witness in a federal grand jury case involving Rep.David Rivera (R-FL) is still missing, but she left important evidence behind for investigators: at least four envelopes that had been stuffed with unreported campaign cash,” the Miami Herald reports.

GOP operative Ana Alliegro delivered the cash-stuffed envelopes to a mail house “that sent out fliers in a congressional race against a Rivera political rival… The FBI has the envelopes to check for fingerprints and handwriting comparisons.”

“Also in the hands of FBI agents: at least six invoices initially made out to the attention of David Rivera — all marked paid ‘cash’ — to cover the mailings for Democratic primary challenger Justin Lamar Sternad, a suspected Rivera straw-man candidate. The congressman demanded that his name be removed from the invoices with Wite-Out, documents and interviews show.”

John Enright (R), a candidate for Pinal County supervisor candidate, “has withdrawn from the race in the wake of voter-fraud allegations involving a former companion who, records show, has continued to vote by absentee ballot in the five years since her death,” the Arizona Republic reports.

The woman, Sheila Nassar — whom Enright described as his “life companion” — lived with Enright at the time of her death.

Jack Abramoff: “During the years I was lobbying, I purveyed millions of my own and clients’ dollars to congressmen, especially at such decisive moments. I never contemplated that these payments were really just bribes, but they were. Like most dissembling Washington hacks, I viewed these payments as legitimate political contributions, expressions of my admiration of and fealty to the venerable statesman I needed to influence.”

“Outside our capital city (and its ever-prosperous contiguous counties), the campaign contributions of special interests are rightly seen as nothing but bribes. The purposeful dissonance of the political class enables congressmen to accept donations and solemnly recite their real oath of office: My vote is not for sale for a mere contribution. They are wrong. Their votes are very much for sale, only they don’t wish to admit it. The reason they don’t feel they are being bought is that the interaction seems so normal. In fact, were they not public servants, it would be very normal.”

Rick Hasen: “How does the brave new world of campaign financing created by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision stack up against Watergate? The short answer is: Things are even worse now than they were then.”

“The 1974 scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon was all about illegal money secretly flowing to politicians. That’s still a danger, but these days, the biggest weakness of our campaign finance system is not what’s illegal, but what’s legal. As Dan Eggen of the Washington Post put it, ‘there’s little need for furtive fundraising or secret handoffs of cash.’ The rules increasingly allow people and corporations with great wealth to skew public policy toward their interests–without risking a jail time, or a fine, or any penalty at all. It’s an influence free-for-all.”

Backers of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) want President Obama “to grant a pardon that would prevent the ex-Democratic officeholder from returning to prison for his 2006 bribery conviction,” the AP reports.

“Indicted in 2005 and tried the next year, Siegelman was convicted of selling a seat on a hospital regulatory board to former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in exchange for $500,000 in donations… Sentenced to more than seven years in prison, Siegelman served about nine months, mostly in a Louisiana federal prison, before being released in 2008 on an appeal bond.”

Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James (D), who left office in 2006, tells the Bergen Record that “political life after prison is not out of the question.”

In fact, he is “so confident he’ll eventually reverse his 2008 fraud conviction he keeps a campaign fund that currently has $725,000 in it.”

Said James: “It should be remembered that former Mayor Marion Barry of Washington returned home to win reelection and is still serving on the D.C. City Council.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Bloomberg TV that the Obama government is “proving to be” the “most corrupt in history.”

Said Issa: “We are busy in Washington with a corrupt government, with a government that I said perhaps because of the money, the amount of TARP and stimulus funds, was going to be the most corrupt government history and it is proving to be just exactly that. This money going though the hands of political leaders is corrupting the process, whether it is Solyndra, GSA, or a number of other scandals.”