Suspicious that congressmen were accepting bribes, the F.B.I. constructed a “sting” operation in 1978. F.B.I. agents posing as Middle Eastern businessmen offered money for favors on behalf of a fictional sheik.
Six members of Congress were caught on tape accepting money.
Representatives John Jenrette, Richard Kelly, Raymond Lederer, John Murphy, Michael Myers, and Frank Thompson, as well as Senator Harrison Williams, were convicted, although Representative Kelly’s conviction was reversed on appeal.
