# Bribery **Bribery** is the paradigm case of [[Corruption]]: giving or receiving something of value to influence an official act. It is the form every legal system criminalizes, and — precisely because it is the easy case — the form that defines the boundary of what is *not* prosecuted. Federal bribery is charged principally under 18 U.S.C. § 201, which requires a corrupt quid pro quo linked to an "official act." The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] narrowed that term sharply in [[McDonnell v. United States]] (2016), holding that arranging meetings, hosting events, and making introductions do not qualify. The practical effect is that the transactional core of influence politics — access sold for money — sits outside the bribery statute, which is why the vault treats American corruption as primarily structural rather than criminal. See [[Campaign Finance]], [[Lobbying]], and [[Money as Speech]] for the legalized channels that absorbed what bribery law no longer reaches. Abroad, the [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] criminalizes bribery of foreign officials by US-linked entities — a statute whose enforcement posture is itself a live indicator, tracked under [[Fraud Enforcement Inversion]]. This is a stub — expand with the § 201 elements, the gratuities/bribery distinction, state bribery regimes, and the enforcement record. ## See Also - [[Corruption]] - [[McDonnell v. United States]] - [[Honest Services Fraud]] - [[Foreign Corrupt Practices Act]] - [[Public Integrity Section]]