After comedian Rosie O'Donnell offered $2 million to two Republican senators to vote against the GOP tax bill on Twitter, conservatives across the Internet began calling for formal charges of bribery against her.
O'Donnell's tweet was directed at Maine Senator Susan Collins and Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who both ultimately voted for the tax bill. She reiterated the cash offer in several other tweets.
Conservative websites The Daily Wire and The Federalist asserted O'Donnell had committed a felony by bribing members of Congress, and countless Twitter users agreed with cries such as "LOCK HER UP!"
Red State insists that these calls for bribery charges are "tongue-in-cheek and meant more as a mockery of those on the left who actually would scream bloody murder if a conservative openly tried to bribe Democrats in Congress," but what are the chances that a federal prosecutor would pursue bribery charges against O'Donnell based on her tweets?
OK, Let's Talk Bribery
Under 18 U.S. Code § 201, bribing a member of Congress is, indeed, a crime. The statute prohibits anyone from "corruptly" offering "anything of value to any public official" with the intent to influence the official or an official act.
The word "corruptly" is key, because in this context it means the accused must have the "intent to influence" a public official. In a hypothetical bribery case against O'Donnell over her tweets, the prosecution would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that O'Donnell acted "corruptly," with "intent to influence" the senators.
This would be a tough standard to meet, especially because of O'Donnell's status as a comedian and frequent—and quite vocal—political commentator. She could and would likely assert that her tweets were not seriously publicly offering money to senators but were intended to be hyperbole, political commentary and/or performance art illustrating that "there is a price," in reference to her claims that "THEY BRIBED [Tennessee Senator Bob] CORKER AND COLLINS" and that "they have been paid obviously."
In other words, O'Donnell could argue she didn't tweet "corruptly" but rather tweeted to point out what she perceived to be corruption involved with GOP tax bill votes.
O'Donnell is well known, in fact, for tweeting controversial, arguably hyperbolic statements in the current political atmosphere, including declaring President Donald Trump "MENTALLY UNSTABLE," "MENTALLY ILL" and "A CRIMINAL," which would further make convincing a jury that O'Donnell actually had the intent to influence senators through cash offers via tweets extremely difficult.
And then there are the optics. Despite direct pleas to Attorney General Jeff Sessions to intervene, the concept of "felony by tweet" probably isn't a fight this administration would be interested in pursuing—at least not in a courtroom.
The public forum of Twitter, however, is always open.
