Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), right, says New Jersey’s bribery law should clarify that a bribe is a bribe regardless of timing. (Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)
Two lawmakers want to tighten New Jersey’s anti-bribery law to foil anyone who would pretend a bribe was just a tip.
Sen. Joseph Vitale and Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez, both Democrats who represent Middlesex County, introduced a bill this month that would add language to the state bribery statute clarifying that a person is guilty of bribery if they offer, give, agree to take, or take money or some other benefit in exchange for an official act — regardless of whether the benefit was received before or after that act.
The bill comes four months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal bribery law prohibits bribes to state and local officials but doesn’t make it a crime for officials to accept gratuities for past acts.
In that controversial case out of Indiana, former Portage mayor James Snyder was charged under federal bribery law after he took a $13,000 check from a trucking company in 2014, the year after he awarded two contracts to the company and paid them over $1 million for five trash trucks. Snyder eventually was convicted and sentenced to prison but argued on appeal that the law criminalizes only bribes, not after-the-fact gratuities.
Attorneys for former Sen. Bob Menendez, who awaits sentencing after he was convicted under the federal bribery law in July, cited the Snyder ruling in their August motion for an acquittal and new trial.
“Because the government prosecuted Menendez on a theory of bribes, not gratuities, the evidence of after-the-fact payments cannot be used to sustain a bribery conviction absent some evidence that Senator Menendez was expecting these after-the-fact payments. No such evidence was offered,” the attorneys wrote.
Vitale said the Snyder ruling inspired his legislation, which he said should make clear to anyone mulling bribery in New Jersey that the timing of a bribe is irrelevant.
“The point was whether the exchange of money is before or after. ‘Afterwards, it’s just a payoff. Before it’s a bribe.’ It’s the same! It’s: ‘I’ll pay you later.’ It’s a joke! To hide behind that as a defense is stupid,” Vitale said.
Vitale hopes the Senate’s judiciary committee will hear the bill this fall.
“Illegal behavior isn’t really unique to any subset of people. It’s everywhere, although elected officials should be held to a higher standard — the highest standard — and sometimes they don’t hold themselves to that standard,” Vitale said.
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