As Elon Musk’s DOGE team reveals more wasteful and fraudulent spending, it raises the question of how it occurred in the first place. Some people wonder if lawmakers were financially influenced to enable it; in other words, they wonder if some were bribed.

That made me do a little thought experiment on how it could be possible to do this. To be clear, I’m not condoning this illegal behavior or suggesting anyone else try it; I’m just conducting a theoretical exercise and sharing it with you.

You might think that making a huge campaign contribution is the easiest way to funnel money to a politician to influence them. That strategy would work for local politicians here in Alaska because there are no limits on the size of campaign contributions to state elections.

It didn’t used to be that way. After corruption scandals in 2007, when three Alaska Legislators were convicted of extortion and bribery, Alaska adopted tough anti-corruption laws, including a strict $500 limit on campaign contributions. In 2021, a court challenge made by the Republican party eliminated that limit. Ever since then, the citizens of Alaska have been allowed to donate any amount of money they wish to any candidate’s election campaign. I am making no accusations, but I’m not sure allowing this ensures the integrity of our legislators in Juneau. If someone wanted to influence a politician at the state level, a big campaign contribution is where they would start.

If someone wanted to influence politicians financially, they could purchase large amounts of their books to funnel money to them. This isn’t just a theory; it has been done before.

Bribing a politician in DC would be a little harder for a couple of reasons. First, there is a limit on the size of contributions an individual can make to a politician’s federal election campaign. Second, a vigorous lobbying industry back in DC competes with citizens to give money to politicians, sometimes making citizens’ contributions irrelevant. The federal limit on contributions a citizen can make to a federal reelection campaign was capped at $3,500 for the 2024 election. However, lobbyists can contribute unlimited money to the so-called Super PACs that support politicians they want to influence.

Unfortunately for the criminals, this method has some inefficiencies. The money in a Super PAC does not go directly to a politician’s election campaign, making it harder for the politician to access it.

That being said, there are still a couple of ways it would be possible to bribe members of the Washington elite directly. One way is to buy their artwork, and the other is through the books they write.

There have been allegations that Hunter Biden was used as a conduit to funnel money to Joe Biden. I have no direct knowledge of that, but speaking theoretically, some interesting coincidences should be noted. The first coincidence is that in the middle of Joe Biden’s term in office, Hunter could sell his paintings for $75,000 each, despite having no previous experience as an artist. One of Hunter’s friends must have enjoyed his art very much because the friend purchased $875,000 worth of Hunter’s paintings.

A second individual bought one of Hunter’s paintings and, about the same time, was appointed to head a federal agency, the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. That was probably just another coincidence.

Of course, artistic tastes can change, and about the same time Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of his reelection campaign, the demand for Hunter’s artwork also dried up. In a court filing last week, Hunter Biden pleaded poverty, saying that the demand for his artwork is almost zero, and he has only sold one painting for $36,000 in the past year. You have to sympathize with Hunter being forced to deal with the fickle, ever-changing nature of the art world. If he were smart, he would have authored more books.

I am not suggesting that every large campaign contribution to a politician here in Alaska is an effort to bribe them, nor is every book a politician writes an attempt to receive bribes.

Books written by politicians are wildly popular; well, at least politicians seem to sell a lot of them for some reason. Who knew these dedicated public servants had so much time on their hands to write? When they do “write” books (most are ghostwritten), they collect massive amounts of money through book royalties. Some royalties earned last year by U.S. Senators are shown in the chart below.

US Senators earn a salary of $174,000 per year. That’s not bad compared to the average American’s wage, but some senators earn far more money in book royalties than in senate salaries.

If someone wanted to influence politicians financially, they could purchase large amounts of their books to funnel money to them. This isn’t just a theory; it has been done before. In 1989, an ethics committee report implied that Speaker of the House James Wright used bulk purchases of a book he had written to earn income over congressional limits on earning money outside of Congress. Faced with this scandal, Wright resigned from his position as Speaker. Who is to say this method of graft isn’t still going on?

However, buying a big stack of books is not the best way to a politician’s heart. The real money in political books is not royalties from sales. The real money is paying politicians an upfront fee to write their memoirs.

Barak and Michelle Obama received 65 million dollars to write books about their time in office. Bill Clinton received 15 million dollars for his autobiography, Hillary Clinton received 8 million dollars for her first autobiography, written in 2014, and another 11.5 million dollars for her second autobiography, written after the 2016 election. It is hard to believe someone would need two autobiographies to tell their life story, but Hillary did. Other politicians have been rewarded with similar significant cash advances for their memoirs.

Publishers are shrewd businessmen and can certainly sell enough books to cover the considerable financial advances they have paid out to these politicians…. I guess.

I am not suggesting that every large campaign contribution to a politician here in Alaska is an effort to bribe them, nor is every book a politician writes an attempt to receive bribes. I’m just suggesting that it is theoretically possible to influence politicians in those ways.

The public should view the news skeptically when politicians announce they are authoring a new book. Perhaps not every book deal is done as a public service; sometimes, politicians are just trying to enrich themselves.

Note – The preceding discussion was a theoretical thought exercise. I am making no accusations against any individual holding political office or their associates. I have no direct knowledge of any criminal activities.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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