Remember ABSCAM? Seven members of Congress bagged in one FBI operation [View all]

[jberryhill]

There was a comment a while back asking if the speech and debate clause of the Constitution prohibited the criminal investigation of members of Congress for activities involving their official activities.

The speech and debate clause provides that members of Congress:

...shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

For those that missed it, ABSCAM was a pretty ballsy sting operation originally set up by the FBI to investigate official corruption connected with the Atlantic City casino business, but expanded into some amazing fictional scenarios set up to offer bribes to members of Congress. They had people pose as front men for a fake company that was claimed to be owned by wealthy Saudi Arabians.

If you don't remember it, or weren't around at the time, take a look at how they brought these guys down:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam#Convictions

Richard Kelly's appeal was something of an amusement:

In 1982 the conviction of Richard Kelly was overturned on the grounds of entrapment. Kelly, the sole Republican, said that he was only pretending to be involved with the bribery from Abdul Enterprises. He claimed that he was conducting his own operation dealing with corruption and that the FBI was ruining his own investigation. However, an appeals court upheld the conviction and Kelly served 13 months in prison.

What was hilarious about the "entrapment" claim was that it boiled down to saying, "Well of course if you offer a bribe to a Congressman, he'll take it!"

Watch how NBC broke the story:

The videos of the meetings were great stuff too.

This guy thinks he's going to outwit the FBI: