United States v. Lawrence S. Bloom

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

An indictment charges Lawrence Bloom— between 1979 and 1995 the Alderman for Chicago’s Fifth Ward — with corruption in office. The question presented by the prosecutor’s interlocutory appeal under 18 U.S.C. § 3731 is whether a portion of Count I, which accuses Bloom of mail fraud, charges a pub-lie-capacity or only a private-capacity offense. The district court dismissed Count I to the extent it alleges that Bloom schemed to deprive Chicago of the intangible right to his honest services, holding that the charge properly claims only that Bloom schemed to deprive the…