White House officials facing prison time over Sestak bribe?

Last week, Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak claimed that the White House had offered him a top position in the government if he would drop out of his Senate race. Sestak is locked in a brutal primary against White House ally Arlen Specter, who Obama coaxed over from the Republican Party. Now two members of Congress have expressed concern that the White House may have committed a crime.

[Senator Arlen] Specter said [on MSNBC], “There is a specific federal statute, which makes it a bribe to make an offer for a public office. When I was district attorney, if somebody came and told me that, I would say, well, name names. Name dates. Name places. That’s a very serious charge. It’s a big black smear without specification. I’m telling you there is a federal crime, punishable by jail. Anybody who wants to say that ought to back it up.

Congressman Sestak has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that. It’s really an attack on the administration.”

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Meanwhile, Rep. [Darrell] Issa wrote a letter on Wednesday to White House Counsel Robert Bauer citing U.S. Code 18, Sections 211, 595, and 600 regarding the bribery of a public official. Section 595 says someone who “uses his official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, Delegate of the District of Columbia or Resident Commissioner, shall be fined under the title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

Whoever made this bribe, likely someone high up in the administration, could go to prison for a year if convicted. The guilty party was likely one of the president's political advisors. Patrick Gaspard seems too clever and elusive to stick his neck out like this. Rahm Emanuel is the main suspect, but Valerie Jarrett and David Plouffe are also possibilities. It's also improbable that the briber was acting without the express permission of Obama, although the president will undoubtedly claim ignorance and let someone else take the fall.

Should we believe Sestak? The only denial of his claims by the administration thus far have been from a single anonymous official. Robert Gibbs has ducked the question three times. If no one is willing to attach their name to this, it's hard to believe they have nothing to hide. It's also hard to believe Sestak, a former Navy admiral, would want to make enemies at the White House before he even entered the Senate.