COMPLETE STATIC READING EDITION
ABSCAM’s people after ABSCAM, through October 2026.
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Deaths, a second conviction and a lot of silence.
Richard Kelly died on 22 August 2005, at 81. Mel Weinberg died on 30 May 2018, at 93. John Jenrette died on 17 March 2023, at 86. [1][2][3]
Michael Myers, the first to take the money, pleaded guilty in 2022 to stuffing ballot boxes in Philadelphia from 2014 to 2018 and was sentenced to 30 months. [4][5]
Harrison Williams died in 2001. Frank Thompson died in 1989, John Murphy in 2015 and Raymond Lederer in 2008. John Murtha died in 2010, still in Congress. Larry Pressler left the Senate in 1997.
What we can’t tell you. Dates not linked to a source in this entry are given from standard congressional biographies.
Obituary; died August 22, 2005; served 13 months; lightest of the seven sentences.
Newspaper obituary; reports about $150,000 in government pay. Paywalled.
Wire obituary; died March 17, 2023 at 86; served 13 months of a two-year sentence.
Primary prosecutor release; ballot stuffing for judicial candidates, 2014–2018.
News report of the sentence.
When is money for access a bribe?
ABSCAM’s cases set a rule that still holds: selling a promise of official help is bribery even if you never mean to keep it. [3]
The harder question is campaign money. In 2025 the Sixth Circuit, upholding Sittenfeld’s conviction, said the line between a lawful contribution and a bribe had become blurry and invited the Supreme Court to revisit it. Weeks later the President pardoned him. [1][2]
That is the argument ABSCAM’s defendants made in a cruder form forty years ago: that the government should not get to define the crime by staging the offer. It has never fully gone away.
What we can’t tell you. No Supreme Court ruling revisiting McCormick had been issued as of 23 October 2026.
Primary opinion affirming 2–1; the court discussed the line between campaign contributions and bribes in undercover cases.
Primary pardon warrant, United States v. Sittenfeld, 1:20-cr-142.
Primary federal appellate opinion. Murphy bribery acquittal and reversal of conflict-of-interest Count Three are explicit. Opinion says Myers trial ended August 29; House biographical record says conviction August 30. Avoid false date precision; use August 1980.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE
3 claims people make about this file, each rated documented, partly true, disputed, unproven or false. Think a rating is wrong? Use Dispute or Support, or join the Discussion.
He died on 30 May 2018 at 93.
Who says it: Obituaries.
He died on 17 March 2023 at 86.
Who says it: AP.
The Sixth Circuit said in 2025 that it may be time for the Supreme Court to revisit the line.
Who says it: Sixth Circuit.
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