How the fuck is it even remotely legal for a politician to sign an NDA with a corporation to hide information from their constituents?

  • NateNate60@lemmy.world
    80·
    1 day ago

    Michigan Constitution Art. 4 § 11 protects state legislators from liability for speech in the legislature. A similar clause that applies to local councillors would prevent these sorts of contracts because they wouldn’t be binding; the councillors could openly violate the non-disclosure agreement during the council sessions and would be immune from liability for breaching the agreement. That being said, being legally allowed to speak won’t persuade a person who doesn’t want to speak from staying silent. If the company in question offered a huge bribe to not talk, that’s not something that can be solved by the legislature. That’s a problem for the prosecutor’s office.

    • qualia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      24 hours ago

      So they’re less worried about civil liability and more concerned about being sued for “breach of contract” and possibly having to return the bribe?

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
        20·
        21 hours ago

        Contract law is a branch of the civil law and breach of contract gives rise to civil liability.

        Let’s talk about legal bribes vs illegal bribes.

        A “legal bribe” would be something like offering some crazy incentive to a councillor that is tied to the project being approved, like saying “We’re thinking about donating $100,000 to your re-election campaign” or “Your son should apply for our data analyst position with an annual salary of $100,000”. There is no explicit agreement, just a wink and a nod. But the person being bribed knows that the receipt of the reward is contingent on their acting according to the bribe offerer’s wishes. This form of bribery is legal in the United States and actually constitutionally protected according to the infamously fucked-up Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. If the councillor doesn’t do what the data centre company wants, they’ll simply not receive the donation or their son won’t get the job.

        An “illegal bribe” is just a classic bribe: an agreement that we will pay you X dollars cash if you do Y. That’s illegal in the US and carries strict penalties. But since it’s illegal, if the money has already been paid and the bribe recipient doesn’t do what was agreed, or the bribe offerer doesn’t pay after the bribe recipient does what they’re told, there is absolutely no recourse to the legal system because courts will not enforce contracts for illegal activities.

        The NDA is probably a legal bribe. The company invites the councillor to discuss the data centre project at the fanciest restaurant in town, makes them sign an NDA that “all details of the meeting will remain confidential”, then discusses the possibility of the campaign donation or nepo job offer at the meeting. Then the company pays for the meal on the company card. All of that is technically legal, but of course, it’s horribly corrupt so if the locals caught wind of it, they’d run the councillor out of town. Entire municipal councils have been recalled from office before as a result of unpopular data centre projects.