Presumably both suspected the other of corruption and were attempting that well-known procedure of US law enforcement, entrapment. At least that will be the case by the time of the appeal.
Judge nailed for trying to bribe Fed with fizzy water (aka Bud Light)
A judge in North Carolina, US, has been convicted for attempting to bribe an FBI agent to pull his wife's text messages in exchange for two cases of flavored water – aka American light beer. Judge Arnold Jones II was found guilty of three charges related to his attempt convince an officer working with the FBI gang-busting task …
COMMENTS
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 14:47 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Bud Light is beer?
Shouldnt the fact he offered this also be used to charge him with cruel and unusual punishment??
Lidl are currently selling "Duff" branded beer; it is obviously not intended for the US market, because at 4.9% alcohol, it is five times stronger than they are used to.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 15:24 GMT a_yank_lurker
Re: Bud Light is beer?
Good US beers are about 6% or so alcohol unless the state law limits the alcohol content. However they are called craft beers and are made by smaller breweries who take pride in making a quality product. The mass market "beer" aka piss-water has no quality just a lot of money spent on ads.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 17:44 GMT agurney
Re: Bud Light is beer?
Agreed, there are some nice beers in the US, but sadly few and far between. Of the mass market beers, the only one I can tolerate, nay enjoy, is Samuel Adams.
On a business trip back from SLC recently I packed a few bottles of Polygamy Porter for a larf ("why have just one") .. on arrival in the UK there was broken padlock on my suitcase with a nice note from TSA or homeland security, but at least they left the beer intact.
<rant>
Why is it that in the US if you order a beer you're handed a bottle of Bud Light, no glass, and expected to tip?
</rant>
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 19:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Bud Light is beer?
> Why is it that in the US if you order a beer you're handed a bottle of Bud Light, no glass, and expected to tip?
Because it looks macho if you drink that stuff¹ so you're expected to do the whole pose. Open the bottle without an opener, sit with one elbow on the table, the opposite hand on your jeans, and then walk back to your pick-up truck (shotgun on the back window optional but recommended).
South Bohemia is the place for proper beer. You get a glass, it never goes empty before you get the next, some of the brews are stronger than wine, yet people stay polite and civil no matter how drunk, and then they *walk*² home or take a taxi³. Oh, and beer is cheaper than water.
¹ To be fair, it does take some courage.
² For a loose definition of "walk".
³ Apart from the limit being zero, it is considered socially unacceptable to drive after taking alcohol.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 21:24 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Bud Light is beer?
" You get a glass, it never goes empty before you get the next,"
Are you saying they "top-up" an unfinished glass so you don't get a full measure? That's fightin' talk here in Geordie-land!!! Next you'll be telling be there's a big foamy head on it too!!!
<bloody stupid icon, not a full pint!!!>
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 19:54 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Frosty pist
> I was only in Munich for Oktoberfest a few weeks ago
The real Oktoberfesten happen *after* the one in Munich. That one might or might not have been the original, but nowadays it's just another tourist attraction like Disneyland. Nothing like punting up at some little village in Bavaria or Austria and partying with the locals.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 16:11 GMT chivo243
Re: Not Really
@Dr. Ellen
Have a beer on me... and an upvote. I too made a wisecrack here on El Reg about how Hillary gets away everything, and was down voted. One wouldn't have thought so many Hillary supporters frequent El Reg. And to be fair, I'm no Trump fan either. I get the feeling the voters have the choice of Bud or Budlight...
If you're concerned about the election, you're distracted by it by design.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 18:04 GMT Phil W
Re: Not Really
@chivo243
It's not that there's lots of Hillary supporters here, there are lots of techies here who think that her use of a private email email server for government work was stupid.
However while we may criticise Hillary, we don't compound that with accusing the FBI of being corrupt or ineffective, or assuming we're better qualified to judge her legal culpability without either seeing the evidence or having any legal training.
I have little doubt that the issue of her emails, while bad and stupid, was technically not a crime. Whether it was a sufficient violation of policy and should in some way disqualify her from holding some or all public offices in future is an entirely different matter, which I am undecided on.
But really I think in terms of whether she should be allowed to run for president as a result, that is something for the Democrat party to decide on in the first instance, and the people in the form of voting in the second.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 18:24 GMT Malcolm Weir
Optional
@Phil W, while there may be some who think that her use of a private server was "stupid", there are also many who know that the idea that the government run server might have been "more secure" is naive (hi, OPM... nice of you to let all my personal information -- and that of my wife -- leak to the Chinese), and who know that trying to persuade a government IT department to do something complicated (like setup an email account) may have required enough paperwork to deforest Oregon and enough elapsed time to allow that forest to regrow.
There is a reason why senior elected officials, up to and *including* President G. W. Bush (the notional owner of "GWB42.com") end up on non-governmental systems!
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 20:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Not Really
> One wouldn't have thought so many Hillary supporters frequent El Reg.
I do support Hillary and I too would take offence at any attempt to make light of such a great person.
He and Mr Tenzing were the last great explorers, and people of great courage, integrity, and humility. One does not "wisecrack" on that, my dear colonial chap.
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Sunday 23rd October 2016 00:56 GMT Mark 85
@Dr. Ellen -- Re: Not Really
Just like in the public media, Twitter, FB, etc. I'm sure we have not only trolls here but also the bots. Say anything against either candidate and expect downvotes and snide comments. Say anything against both in the same post, the crap really hits the rotating air movement device.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 21:39 GMT Captain DaFt
Re: Not Really
"If you're concerned about the election"
It's not wasting your vote, you're sending a message that enough is enough!
Don't waste it on Trump or Clinton!
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Tuesday 25th October 2016 15:28 GMT cray74
Re: Not Really
"Vote for Johnson! It's not wasting your vote..."
The Libertarian Johnson is the only one of the four candidates with a more destructive economic and regulatory plan than Trump. Further, I recall that third party voting in 2000 gave the US eight years under Bush Jr., which was accompanied by a de-regulatory environment (the Republican's watered down version of Libertarianism) that ran the financial and real estate sectors into the ground while refusing to raise taxes. The majority of the current federal deficit is also from Bush's Libertarian Lite 2001 tax cuts, which he maintained through the two longest wars in US history. Johnson, moreso than Trump, would love to double down on deregulation, tax cuts, and dismantling the federal government to return its services to the states.
Votes for Johnson are thus, in my opinion, a waste for a multitude of reasons.
I did give a protest vote for a third party candidate in 1992, back when I only cared about breaking the two-party system. Perot was leading both the Democrat and Republican contenders for a while before he went nuts ("Republicans tried to sabotage my daughter's wedding!"). When he ran again in 1996, his Reform Party was acting like the ancestor of the Tea Party and I couldn't support him.
The 2016 US election should be the new Year of the Third Party, but the only third parties in contention are unpalatable to most Americans. The Libertarians have been hijacked by failed Republicans and billionaires tired of taxes and regulations. The Green's Dr. Stein won't stand up to Facebook-educated members of her party with serious pseudo-science problems about vaccines, wifi, GMOs, and nuclear power, and then advocates economic changes designed to alienate most Americans. Trump is doing a fine job of scaring Democrats into party loyalty, and most voters remember Gore's 2000 loss to third parties.
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Sunday 23rd October 2016 11:29 GMT Steve Davies 3
Re: Not Really
Trump is akin to the dregs that you get in a cask of 'live' beer when all the good stuff has been consumed.
Hillary is akin to those cheap bottles of German wine that were later found to contain Anti-freeze.
Both will leave a bitter taste in the mouth.
Off for a pint of Harvey's best.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 18:46 GMT Gene Cash
Re: Not Really
A "local sherrif's deputy" cooperating with the FBI is not an FBI agent.
No, but as the article notes, you can be both.
You can't bribe the FBI with two cases of beer.
They didn't. They used 2 cases of Budweiser. I would clap 'em in jail for the criminal insult to my taste buds.
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Sunday 23rd October 2016 13:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Not Really
> Since the subject is Budwieser, often abbreviated to "bud"
The subject is most definitely not Budweiser (or wieser, as you call it). Budweiser is the beer that comes from Budweis (České Budějovice in Czech. Don't try to pronounce that: you'll get it wrong).
"Bud" is the name under which American hamster piss is sold in Europe, given that they do not have the right to use the name Budweiser for something which neither comes from nor has the characteristics of the product from Budweis.
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Monday 24th October 2016 23:15 GMT Kurt Meyer
Re: Not Really
<b@ Gene Cash</b>
"A "local sherrif's deputy" cooperating with the FBI is not an FBI agent.
No, but as the article notes, you can be both."
No you can not be both a "local sherrif's deputy" and an FBI agent.
The article incorrectly leads by saying that Deputy Matthew Miller is a federal agent.
He is not.
Farther down, article clearly states that "Jones was accused of texting a Wayne County deputy, who also is a member of an FBI gang task force..."
An FBI gang task force is typically a multi-agency group formed as needed. It will have personnel drawn from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
Deputy Miller is a "local", not a fed.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 16:46 GMT Glenn 6
I don't condone what the judge did - but having been through a marriage where my wife was cheating on me behind my back, I understand. You aren't exactly in your normal, reasonable mental state when your wife is being a total slut with (at least in my case) more than one guy over the phone.
It's not like he was bribing an officer for his own profit, or influencing a trial case.
Just saying. Maybe a little slack considering you do go a little crazy when you find out the person you love is a whore.
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 19:49 GMT Hollerithevo
Glenn 6
And if your wife had tried to locate text messages you had sent to other women, had the boot been on the other foot, you would have been totally understanding that she had gone a little crazy?
If bad behaviour, that is, cheating and being unfaithful, by one person allows the other person to tear up his or her personal code of honour, then that other person has no right to call the cheating spouse a 'whore'. I have been in the situation, and finally you have to decide whether your sense of hurt and betrayal is so great that you can do what you would normally not allow yourself to do, that is, whether you will stick by your principles and grow a pair and take the blow on the chin, or whether you will become a different and wore person through hurt and rage.
I guess it's each person's call, but a lot of foolish and (in the case of the article) criminal behaviour would be avoided if people tried to maintain their sense of decency..
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Saturday 22nd October 2016 21:33 GMT John Brown (no body)
"It's not like he was bribing an officer for his own profit, or influencing a trial case."
Maybe not, but it's not only the principle but in this case, his position as a judge. Yes, he's human like the rest of us, but as a dispenser of justice he really must be held to a much higher standard. I'm not au fait with the US justice system, but I assume that a "superior court judge" is fairly senior in rank and so probably not some young whipper-snapper with little life experience.
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Monday 24th October 2016 18:07 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: @John Brown
"The second paragraph may help clear away some confusion."
Ah, rights, it's just "tradition" now, Thanks for that.
Wifey will be pleased when I tell her. She loves courtroom drama shows, including US ones. Sometime the procedures are a bit baffling, but it usually all comes out in the wash :-)
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Monday 24th October 2016 14:10 GMT Chez
Re: UK just as bad
You all also forget about the massive microbrew scene rising in the US. Hipsters are learning that good money can be made by doing relatively small batches of top-quality stuff to sell at Whole Foods and in little pubs. There's a place not far from me that only sells what they brew in-house, and I've never had a bad beer there, although it's generally rather high-priced.
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Tuesday 25th October 2016 15:44 GMT cray74
Re: UK just as bad
The US overtook Germany for number of breweries in 2005, and that growth hasn't stopped. Most of them don't sell as much beer as Budweiser spills on its loading docks but it's created a very diverse beer scene. The old Bud-and-Schlitz aisles of grocery stores have a) expanded, and b) gained dozens of new beer options.
You don't see those craft brews abroad very often because they can't afford to market overseas, while Budweiser can just mop up some loading dock spillage, rebottle it, and sell it to fund several marketing trips overseas.
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