Landmark Publications

The Honest Services of Public Officials Landmark Publications

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze and discuss issues surrounding the doctrine of honest-services fraud. Volume 2 of the casebook covers the Sixth through the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. * * * A defendant deprives the public of his honest services by accepting a bribe, as that act is defined by the federal bribery statute, 18 U. S. C. § 201. Under § 201, a public official may not seek or receive anything of value in return for "being influenced in the performance of any official act." 18 U. S. C. § 201(b)(2). The statute defines an "official act," in turn, as "any decision or action on any question, matter, cause, suit, proceeding or controversy, which may at any time be pending, or which may by law be brought before any public official, in such official's official capacity, or in such official's place of trust or profit." Id. § 201(a)(3). United States v. Van Buren (11th Cir. 2019).