[EL] Illegality of paying a federal candidate to drop out of race

[Rick Hasen]

Someone suggested that Donald Trump be offered $150 million to quit the presidential race, and a number of people have asked me if this is illegal.

Dan Lowenstein’s seminal article on bribery in UCLA discusses a state law in California making this illegal (A person shall not . . . pay, solicit, or receive . . . any money or other valuable consideration . . . in order to induce a person not to become or to withdraw as a candidate for public office)

I cannot find an analogous federal law, and did find this in a federal election crimes manual<https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal/legacy/2013/09/30/electbook-0507.pdf> from 2007:

(b) Promise of appointment by candidate: 18 U.S.C. § 599 This statute prohibits a candidate for federal office from promising appointments “to any public or private position or employment” in return for “support in his candidacy.” It is one of the few federal criminal laws specifically addressing campaign-related activity by candidates. It is a class statute that applies only to misconduct by federal candidates. Willful violations are two-year felonies; nonwillful violations are misdemeanors. Section 599 has potential application when one candidate attempts to secure an opponent’s withdrawal, or to elicit the opponent’s endorsement, by offering the opponent a public or private job. See also 18 U.S.C. § 600, discussed above. It also applies to offers of jobs by federal candidates to others to secure endorsements. While Section 599 does not reach offers or payments of money to secure withdrawal or endorsements, if the payment was not reported accurately, such matters may be prosecutable as a reporting violation of FECA under 2 U.S.C. §§ 434(b) and 437g(d) (my emphasis)

Any other potentially applicable law?


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Rick Hasen
Chancellor's Professor of Law and Political Science
UC Irvine School of Law
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