Bribery

Bribery is the exchange of value — money, goods, employment, favorable treatment — for an official action the recipient is in a position to perform or influence. The federal bribery statute and its state equivalents have specific elements; the publication tracks both formally charged bribery cases and conduct that meets the substantive definition even where prosecution does not follow. The corruption is not in the receipt of a thing of value but in the relationship between that value and the official action that follows.