Seriously, I think I’ve heard this before -
it wasn’t really corruption because the bribed politician didn’t follow through on his promises...
And I believe this argument has already been applied to the Clintons.
It’s an old Louisiana Governor Edwards defense. Sure my wive took the money from the North Koreans. They offered it to her and she took it. Has nothing to do with me.
And it worked, but mainly because they couldn’t find a jury of 12 people who didn’t have at least one person who would say, “He’s probably guilty, but I like him”.