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Pat Nolan: Here Comes the Bribe

3/2/202654 min

In the 1980s, Pat Nolan was one of California’s most powerful conservative lawmakers – pushing to shrink the government and expand the death penalty, while quickly climbing the political ladder. He was ambitious, disciplined…and according to the FBI, dirty. Behind closed doors Pat took illegal campaign donations in a scheme so blatant it became the centerpiece of a sweeping federal sting operation that took down an entire generation of right-wing California politicians. What started as a power grab turned into a full-blown corruption crackdown. But prison wasn’t the end of Pat’s story. Because after his fall, the former...

Clips

Too Powerful To Prosecute
Stolen Valor Smack-down
Caveman Pat Roast
Who Deserves Prison Time?

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Speaker 00:00

    [upbeat music] Wondering.

  2. Sarah Hagi· Host0:04

    Sachi, unfortunately, we have to learn so much about American politics. Well, I mean, I guess you live there, but one thing that is always so confusing to me, the difference between lobbying and straight up bribery.

  3. Sachi Cole· Host0:19

    Yeah, the on-paper definition of lobbying sounds like a scam to me, and yet it is not.

  4. Sarah Hagi· Host0:26

    I mean, I don't really understand where the line is drawn at all. Again, it makes zero sense, but that's politics, baby.

  5. Sachi Cole· Host0:35

    Yeah, I've been saying, "That's politics, baby," about pretty much everything every day for 10 years, so I'll add this to the list.

  6. Sarah Hagi· Host0:42

    Yeah, please do. Well, today, I'm going to tell you about a guy who believed so hard in the politics he was pushing, he was shocked to find out that rules apply to him, too. It's the morning of June 29th, 1988, and Pat Nolan has just been handed two large checks. Pat is 38 years old, although he looks a bit older. He has a big, round face, and wears the kind of 1970s oversized glasses that suggest he might be very intense about model trains. Pat is on the rise. He's a Republican minority leader in the California State Assembly, and a high-profile conservative with ambitions for even higher office. Today, Pat is sitting in a hotel suite in Sacramento,

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