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Notes -
I realize now that I should have been saying de facto legalize. Yes, bribery is still illegal, and it can still be prosecuted, but it's very hard to go anywhere with that prosecution if the President can declare the initial act of discussing a bribe as part of his authority to seek opinions from his officers, thus rendering it subject to simple absolute immunity, and preclude the court from considering it (including for the briber, for what it's worth). Barrett's objection concerns the quid-pro-quo evidence created by the President after agreeing to a bribe; my concern is with the impossibility of demonstrating the President's (or his briber's) mental state, a necessary prerequisite for a bribery prosecution, when the court is explicitly disallowed to consider it.
The President cannot declare the act of discussing the bribe with the person bribing him as an official act. Unless he's being bribed by one of his officers in the course of seeking opinions from them. President: "Hey, should I pardon this guy? Secretary of Agriculture: "If you do, I'll give you this nice painting of a cow I got on my last trip home".
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