Live Q&As

I tend to agree. If this happened at the beginning or middle of his term, the right thing to do would be to take a leave of absence until the case is resolved. If  found not guilty, he could resume the job.  But since his term will end in only  a few weeks anyway, the best thing for the County would be for him to step aside now.

Remember, like anyone else accused of a crime, he is presumed innocent until convicted. That's why he is out on bail, instead of in jail.  Someone charged with serious felonies should step aside, at least temporarily, for the good of the county, but if there is no law on the books requiring him to so do, it's up to him.

There have been complaints over the  years that the  Justice Department was targeting African American politicians.  On the other hand, if Johnson has been doing what the U.S. Attorney claims, and has been doing it so blatantly -- $100,000 checks; $79,000 in cash in his house, another $15,000 in  his pocket when the story broke -- it would be outrageous if the FBI was NOT investigating him.

Certainly the FBI doesn;t target ONLY African American politicians. It was an FBI wiretap that caught NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer making "dates" with prostitutes.  It was an FBI investigation and wiretap that caught Illinois Gov. Blogayevitch (sp?) trying to sell Senator Obama's Senate Seat.

I think over all the FBI and the Justice Department have a pretty good record of being an "equal opportunity investigator/prosecutor."

I have friends who live in PG County and say the same thing.

That depends on Maryland law and county ordinances. s I understand the situation, there may not be much anyone can do to prevent him from going to his office and trying to do his job, but of course now that all this is public, I can't imagine anyone wanting to do business with him on any subject.

Pretty much everything that's been reported in the media this past week involves a federal investigation and federal charges.  If the Feds want to keep the case, they can, and there's nothing much state officials can do about it.  On the other hand, it may turn out that federal and state officials might sit down and divide up the cases; or the feds may uncover evidence of conduct taht violates state law but not federal law, in which case the state would get to decide whether to proceed on those charges.

Federal investigations, particularly into political corruption, tend to go on for  years before they make arrests.  It could be that they could have arrested Johnson a couple of  years ago, but let the case run further so they could also make cases against others in the county government, or amoung the developers, before finishing it out.  Typically the feds will have all their evidnece and witnesses lined up, and then they'll finsih the case with a bang -- like they apparently did this time, getting Johnson accepting two more bribes of $15,000 cash, and then as a bonus, intercepting the calls from Johnson to his wife that we've all read about -- and then excute lots of search warrants and arrest warrants.

The Justice Department tends to move slowly, but once they move, it can be like an avalanche -- if you get in the way, you'll get buried.

Right now the only charges officially filed against him are  tampering with a witness and destruction of evidence.  If this case goes in the direction that similar cases do, in a few weeks the government will file a massive indictment agaisnt him charging himwith dozens of counts of corruption-related charges.

None of this means he's guilty -- we should take the presumption of innocence seriously.  But things do not look very good for him right now!

That will depend on Maryland law; I don't know the answer. Sorry!

That is an interesting point. The crime of bribery involves (at least) 2 people: the one giving, and the one taking.  The general view is that the public official is the more serious offender, because he or she has taken an oath to serve the public.  And often -- as is the accusation here -- the public official lets it be known that a company simply won't be given the opportunity to do business unless it pays for the privilege ("pay to play"). If that is what happened, then it is reasonable to target the public official instead of the businessman, who is the victim, not the instigator.

In the long run, you're right: if this leads to a cleaner, more transparent government, it will have been worth it. But that doesn't make it any less painful right now. I'm sure local comedians and columnists will have a lot of fun at PG County's expense, and right now if I was en employee of the county, I'd wince whenever I told someone where I work, because they're undoubtedly getting wise cracks left and right.

If she is convicted -- certainly.  Until then, I don;t think there are laws on the books that would require her to resign. Remember, like every defenedant, she is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.

Good question, but we can only speculate about the timing.

It's not a dumb question. After all, if a state official accepts, or extorts, bribes, why not leave it to the state to police itself?

The answer is that Congress has passed dozens and dozens of laws that can be used to prosecute state officials. The immediate charges spring from the fact that a federal investigation was underway, and the Johnsons allegedly tampered with a witness and destroyed evidence relating to that investitgation.

The underlying investigation, according to media reports, included corruption and bribary in contracts. Some of those contracts might have involved federal funding, and they probably all effected interstate commerce. And there are federal laws against depriving citizens of the right to honest state and local government.

I'm a former prosecutor from New  York City, and that aspect of the case really hits home to me. It certainlymakes you wonder (assuming the current charges are true) whether he was also currupt while he was the state's attorney.   And yes, you'd think that his time as state's attorney would give him a pretty good idea of  how investigations are run, and he would have been more careful in how he engaged in corruption (again, assuming he is guilty, which hasn't been proven yet).

On the other hand, Elliot Spitzer was the Attorney General of New  York State for many years, and conducted several  highly sophisticated investigations, and yet he was stupid enough to patronize a call girl operation -- and doubly stupid enough to book  his "appointments" over the phone.  

Smart people do stupid things with amazing and astonishing frequency. That's just human nature, I guess.

According to media reports, some developers did know it -- and stayed out of the county as aresult.  Perhaps other developers knew it but were big enough and important enough to do business with the county without paying any bribes. (For example, I'd be surprised if it turned out that the 'Skins bribed anybody to be able to build their stadium in PG County.)

Cases like this often take  years to wrap up.  There are lots of reasons.  First, this case sounds massive in terms of how many people will be arrested and how many deals will be the subject of charges.  Second, the government will be offering plea bargains to people who are seen as less corrupt -- the underlings -- in exchange for their testimony against the higher-ups.  A defendant could push for a speedy trial, but that is rare, especially where the defendant is out on bail.  The sooner the trial, the sooner, in all likelihood, a defendant goes to jail.

New metaphor: a big federal case is like a glacier moving toward the ocean -- it moves slowly, but if the feds truly have the witnesses and th evidence, anyone in its path is likely to get ground into dust eventually.

Any crimes that were committed in the past can be investigated and prosecuted, so long as the statute of limitations hasn't run.  And if a business was unfairly denied a contract with the county becuse it refused to pay bribes and the job went to someone who did pay, it is possible that it could sue the county for money damages, although I'm really  just speculating about that.

I could probably make up a few theories, but we'll just have to wait  until the facts emerge more fully.