You have all done a terrific job. Before introducing our distinguished panel, I would like to make a few opening remarks about the problem of judicial and law enforcement corruption and the special challenges that this type of corruption poses for law enforcement. The serious consequences of judicial and law enforcement corruption are often misunderstood or cynically rationalized. As Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and as someone who has been a federal public corruption prosecutor for twelve years, a judge, and the chief federal prosecutor for my nation's capital, the District of Columbia, I have devoted much of my professional life to trying to dispel the perception that public corruption is a victimless crime. The myth that corruption harms no one is one of the biggest lies in public life today.
Corruption has many victims, especially when it involves courts and law enforcement agencies.
Here in the U.S. in recent years, in some of our major cities, judges have been caught fixing criminal cases, and police officers have been found to be on the payroll of narcotics organizations. As a result, drug dealers and other dangerous criminals were released back into society. The communities that have been threatened by these wrongly released criminals are the immediate victims of that judicial and law enforcement corruption. But corruption in the justice system has other less obvious victims. Ensuring public safety and providing a system of justice are core functions of government.