Jarrett: Congress members guilty of ‘bribery’ every day, Dem’s case against Trump is case against themselves

(Video screenshots from FBN/CSPAN)

According to Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, President Donald Trump is guilty of neither bribery nor quid pro quo, which are, in reality, the same thing.

The congressmen and congresswomen who’ve accused him of these acts, however, most certainly are guilty, he argued Monday afternoon to Fox Business Network host Charles Payne.

“Bribery is what members of Congress do every day. They take all kinds of money from interest groups, and in exchange for that, end up voting in favor of those interest groups. So If we’re going to call it bribery, then everybody is guilty,” he said.

Listen:


(Source: Fox Business Network)

“Bribery, by the way, is quid pro quo, so simply changing the name doesn’t alter the equation that there is no evidence in the transcript of the telephone call of a quid pro quo,” the clip above begins with Jarrett saying.

“Apparently, they did a focus group. And bribery resonated more than quid pro quo. And that was why the name was changed,” Payne replied.

Fact-check: TRUE.

It was confirmed a day earlier by Fox News host Chris Wallace.

“It turns out House Democrats did a focus group like you have in a political campaign, and they presented a bunch of questions or a bunch of phrases to average Americans, this focus group, [about] what sounds worse — quid pro quo, extortion, bribery. The focus group said bribery, so that’s what the Democrats are now calling it,” he reported.

Listen:


(Source: Fox News)

Jarrett then dropped his “bribery is what members of Congress do every day,” to which the host replied by noting that congressmen and congresswomen often accept bribes from lobbyists who are working against their constituents’ interests.

From there the discussion pivoted to other topics.

As for Jarrett’s multi-pronged argument, it’s 100 percent accurate.

There is no evidence of quid pro quo in the transcript of the July 25th phone call between the president and his Ukrainian counterpart, President Volodymyr Zelensky. Added to that is the fact that Zelensky, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have all denied claims that Trump had tried to pressure the Ukrainian president.

What Jarrett said about members of Congress accepting money from interest groups and then “voting in favor of those interest groups” was also accurate.

For evidence, just look to Jimmy Williams, a former lobbyist turned “journalist” who revealed the truth about lobbying in an op-ed published last year.

Today, most lobbyists are engaged in a system of bribery but it’s the legal kind, the kind that runs rampant in the corridors of Washington,” he wrote.

It’s a system of sycophantic elected leaders expecting a campaign cash flow, and in return, industry, interest groups, and big labor are rewarded with what they want: legislation and rules that favor their constituencies.”

And as noted by Williams, every congressman and congresswoman is guilty, regardless of political affiliation.

“The political left loves to [poop] all over lobbyists, but they dial for dollars just like their Republican brethren. … The hypocrisy from both sides is staggering,” he opined.

Particularly the hypocrisy of House Speaker Pelosi, who’s been quick to embrace the new “Trump is guilty of bribery” attack angle, despite her own history of accepting veritable bribes from lobbyists.

Not to mention her history of dealing approvingly with fellow Democrats accused of committing actual bribery.

“As the 110th Congress [2007-2009] opened, Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed John Murtha (D-Pa.) for House Majority Leader; a questionable pick considering Murtha was named an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the 1980 ABSCAM bribery scandal, in which an FBI sting caught Murtha on tape discussing cash in exchange for political favors with a faux Arab businessman,” a columnist with Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times noted way back in 2010.

“While a prison cell is being prepared in a federal penitentiary for Rep. [William] Jefferson, another model of integrity in the 110th Congress, Pelosi appointed him to a seat on the Homeland Security Committee despite him being videotaped in August 2005 in an FBI sting accepting $100,000 in marked bills from a Northern Virginia investor and then a few days later, having $90,000 worth of the marked bills recovered from his freezer during a raid.”

If Pelosi genuinely believes Trump committed “bribery,” then it’s a wonder she hasn’t appointed him to be the chair of a House committee …

In more recent times, the current House speaker has reportedly been surrounded by lobbyists ever since she retook the gavel in January.

“When Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA, 12) took the gavel as Speaker of the House, lobbyists began to maneuver for access to her office,” the group Leadership Connect reported earlier this year.

“Leadership Connect has identified a small but influential network of her former staffers and current lobbyists whose connection to Pelosi has raised their importance in Washington. They have the advantage of a longstanding working relationship with the speaker as they weigh in on her aggressive legislative agenda of addressing voter registration, drug pricing, immigration and climate change, among other initiatives.”

Meanwhile, she’s accepted several hundred thousand dollars this election season alone from a number of powerful groups, including the Berkshire Group, the Daschle Group, and Facebook Inc, according to data from Open Secrets.

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Vivek Saxena

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