America has made treason affordable again

A reflection on accountability, deterrence, and the erosion of standards in public service. In the summer of 1779, George Washington wrote to Maj. Gen. Robert Howe about how hard it was to find trustworthy men near enemy lines. Few people, he warned, had the virtue to withstand “the highest bidder.” A year later, Benedict Arnold proved him right by trying to sell West Point to the British for 20,000 pounds. Washington didn’t launch an internal review. He hanged Arnold’s handler within ten days. The founders knew that a country unwilling to punish treason was simply putting a price tag on its own security. For a long time, American courts remembered that lesson. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg went to the electric chair for passing atomic secrets to Moscow. Traitors such as Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen got life without parole, dying behind bars. Even CIA officers caught conspiring with foreign intelligence, such as Jerry Chun Shing Lee, received decades in federal prison. Recommended Stories Compare those outcomes to what happens today. A federal judge recently sentenced John Harold Rogers, a former senior adviser at the Federal Reserve, to just 38 months. Rogers had access to America’s most sensitive economic data: Fed briefing books, internal deliberations on tariffs, and advance notice on interest rate decisions. Prosecutors showed he funneled restricted intelligence to Chinese operatives. A jury acquitted him of economic espionage but convicted him of lying to federal agents. Hanssen died in a supermax. Rogers will be out of prison before the next presidential election cycle finishes. When the accused is an elected official, the leniency gets even stranger. Former Sen. Bob Menendez was convicted in 2024 for acting as a foreign agent while holding a Senate leadership seat — complete with gold bars and cash stuffed in his coat pockets. He received 11 years. Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) faced an indictment over hundreds of thousands in alleged bribes from Azerbaijan and Mexico, only to walk away with a full presidential pardon before ever seeing a courtroom. Look at the sheer scale of what is slipping through the cracks. The Government Accountability Office estimates that Washington hemorrhages up to half a trillion dollars a year to outright fraud, on top of hundreds of billions in simple “improper payments.” Even short-lived audit initiatives like the Department of Government Efficiency folded up shop with auditors still arguing over the math. When a government loses track of hundreds of billions of dollars every year, it isn’t just dealing with inefficiency — it’s building a playground for corruption. Consider the case of David Rush, the former senior CIA officer whose home was raided by the FBI. Agents seized $40 million worth of gold bars. Prosecutors say he simply requisitioned the gold from his own agency under the guise of “official expenses” and walked it out the door. Regardless of how his trial plays out, the underlying fact remains staggering: The system handed one man $40 million in gold and didn’t notice it was missing until it was stacked in his house. Why does a low-level courier get life in prison while politicians and high-ranking officials get pardons, light plea deals, or a quiet wave through the exit door? Part of it is that legal definitions of corruption have been narrowed to the point of uselessness. But the uglier truth is that trading influence has become so normalized that thoroughly prosecuting it would drag down half the political establishment. THOMAS JEFFERSON SAW THROUGH IRAN’S PLAYBOOK 240 YEARS AGOMoney isn’t the only leverage being used against public officials anymore. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recently detailed for Congress the death threats and swatting calls directed at her family. A functional republic requires leaders who can’t be bought with cash, lured by board seats, or intimidated by threats. Benedict Arnold died in exile in London, universally despised by the very country he tried to help. The early republic made his name synonymous with disgrace because they knew deterrence requires shame as much as law. Washington knew that very few men could resist a high enough bid. The only real test of a nation is what it does to the ones who take it. Dory Wiley is president and CEO of Commerce Street Holdings, LLC, a Dallas-based investment bank. He also writes on the lessons of American history for present-day policy.