Here's a story rich with irony. Two-term Philadelphia District Attorney, Seth Williams, a Democrat, has pleaded guilty to federal charges of bribery. The presiding judge was sufficiently disturbed by the case that he ordered Williams taken into custody immediately, even though sentencing has not yet taken place.

The storyline behind the bribery conviction is what captured my interest. Among other things, Williams was accused of helping an alien, Mohammad N. Ali (who also pleaded guilty to bribing Williams), skirt problems with federal immigration officials during his entries into the United States after travel abroad. Apparently, in order to ensure that this scheme worked, Williams went so far as to enlist police officials to assist in the process.

According to the official press release from the Justice Department:

In exchange [for money and gifts], Williams agreed to help Business Owner #1 with security screenings when Business Owner #1 returned from foreign travel. On numerous occasions, Williams contacted a Philadelphia police official in order to pressure and advise the police official to assist Business Owner #1 with those border encounters. On March 15, 2013, Williams met with the police official and Business Owner #1 and asked the police official to help Business Owner #1 avoid secondary screening. That same day, Williams accepted a $7,000 check from Business Owner #1. Williams also repeatedly offered to write an official letter, under his authority as the District Attorney, on behalf of Business Owner #1 to pressure and advise the police official to assist Business Owner #1 with the border encounters.

Readers will be interested to know that Philadelphia is a so-called "sanctuary city" in which police and prosecutorial officials decline to assist federal agents in their enforcement of the immigration laws, claiming that to do so would adversely affect the public safety.

Apparently Williams had no problem whatever, however, with the notion that he might be adversely affecting national security by helping an alien who was so concerned about his ability to pass security screening at our international ports of entry that he felt the need to corrupt the city's chief enforcement officer in order to achieve his admission.