The plot of the film, starring Christian Bale in the Weinberg role, centres on ci
Abscam, a fake firm used to lure politicians m "I told them I'd cop a plea if they let her off," he says.
The story – dubbed
Abscam, short for Abdul Scam after Abdul Enterprises, the front firm set up by the FBI – caused a political storm just four years after Richard Nixon's resignation.
The set-up, which calls to mind the classic
ABSCAM sting, will undoubtedly raise questions of entrapment and other defenses normally seen in mob and drug trials.
in the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI)s
Abscam investigation in 1980 when
FBI initiated an undercover investigation, later known as
ABSCAM, in
1983) (
ABSCAM case; holding that worthless stock offered to Congressman as part of an undercover sting operation was a thing of value because he believed it to be valuable).
Abscam sting operation targeted several United States Senators and
Endowment godfather Frank Thompson, the New Jersey congressman later imprisoned for his role in the
Abscam sting, called it "a program of selling our culture to the uncommitted people of the world," while President Kennedy lauded music as "part of our arsenal in the Cold War." (Not that Kennedy went overboard for artsy stuff.
The entries include many biographies of particular individuals, explanations of important court cases and pieces of legislation, important terms such as impeachment or obstruction of justice, and explanations of particular scandals such as
ABSCAM and the Teapot Dome Scandal.
At times, Jenkins' prose is a bit rushed; when a single page discusses everything from
ABSCAM to MI-PORN to Mount St.
MARX, UNDERCOVER: POLICE SURVEILLANCE IN AMERICA (1988); Katherine Goldwasser, After
ABSCAM: An examination of Congressional Proposals to Limit Targeting Discretion in Federal Undercover Investigations, 36 EMORY L.J.
of Investigation,
ABSCAM, http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/abscam.htm (last