It doesn’t matter what end of the transaction you’re on. If I buy drugs from you with money I earned legally, but collude with you to structure the payment such that you can hide the income, then we’re both potentially guilty. That’s why there is a potential conspiracy charge in the new story I quoted above.
According to the wording of the statute, it does matter. Spitzer wasn’t transacting with the proceeds of any illegal activity. It was his own money. That’s why they’re calling it “structuring” and not laundering.
I think you also have the impression that I’m arguing that they couldn’t charge Spitzer with anything involving his method of payment. I’m sure they could. I’m saying it doesn’t matter if it’s illegal. That doesn’t make it bad. All he did in ethical terms was cheat on his wife.
I think you’re fighting a losing battle here. There are neough people out there who think it does matter, and that it is bad.
Those people are wrong. I’m right.
Please refrain from using HRC and taint in the same sentence. It creates disturbing unintended consequences for some people.
That part of it, yes. But there is also a potential charge of money laundering. I’ll just note that you are the only person in this thread who won’t recognize that. It’s being reported that way in the news, too.
The topic of this thread is what would happen to him, politically, if he didn’t resign. And it’s your contention that it doesn’t matter if what he did was illegal. That’s an interesting proposition, but not one that even passes the laugh test. Of course his political future is going to be affected if he is found to have engaged in illegal activity.
Well, maybe you are and maybe you aren’t, but the problem with that is that everyone judges with a different set of ethical and moral standards, and you likely won’t convince people who have moral standards you disagree with to change their minds just by saying they’re wrong. That way, madness lies, so to speak.
Take me, for instance, because I do disagree with you. I’m one of those “wrong” people. I think Spitzer did something wrong for a number of different reasons. The first, we agree on, he cheated on his wife. The second is that he broke the law, and I don’t think people should break the law, except out of neccessity, or when the law is so immoral that obedience to the law creates a greater evil (We can, of course, debate whether prostitution should be illegal. I’m not convinced it should, but it is.). The third is that he had sex with a woman he didn’t know, and I think that sex should only be between two people in committed relationships. The fourth is that throughout his career, he’s cracked down on both prostitution rings and bank manipulation, and it seems kind of hypocritical that he would do this while he was doing that.
I don’t really think you can argue me out of these positions, especially just by saying “You’re wrong”.
Do you ever drive faster than the speed limit, Captain?
I have, I admit. I try not to, but sometimes if the limit is 35, for instance, I’ll find myself going 36 or 37 or something. When I notice it, I reduce speed, obviously. I’ll also admit that sometimes I’ve crossed the street while the don’t walk light was blinking. It doesn’t make it the right thing to do…it’s just that I don’t always do the right thing.