It is unlawful, i.e., a crime, to bribe foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. Who is “their”? Is it the foreign government official or is it the person offering the bribe? In other words if Hunter Biden bribed a foreign government official to benefit the business of the foreign official, is the act a violation or is it Hunter Biden’s business interest that must be benefitted? The problem is the business interests of both Hunter and the foreign official would have benefitted so regardless of what the pronoun “their” means the statute is violated when a bribe is paid. There is a type of bribe that is legal. A bribe paid to get a person to do their job is not considered a bribe. It’s called a grease payment. The distinction is important because it determines whether or not a bribe is actually a bribe. So.. When is a bribe really a bribe? When the foreign official breaks the law in exchange for the bribe. If the bribe is merely to speed things up it’s considered a grease payment, not a bribe.
Suppose Hunter Biden was not employed by his father but merely carried some benefit that he gave to his father? Well, … This is way over my pay grade. If Hunter was not employed by his father then he wasn’t acting on his behalf. Who is “his”? this sounds like: “it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is.” The actual Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is chock-a-block full of loads of legalese and weasel words that make it impossible to determine if someone violated it unless that person is skilled in the interpretation of words. An ordinary person would just throw up their hands in frustration while trying to find out whether or not a violation occurred. Up go the hands.
Views: 9
