#4 - The mayor has been accused of taking a bribe based on

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[eronquillo12]

Hi-why is B right?

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi eronquillo12,

We know the mayor paid every bill presented to him, which makes it seem like the consultant didn't pay for the improvements. However, answer B presents another possibility; the mayor paid every bill presented to him, but lots of the bills were presented directly to the consultant (and then presumably the consultant may have paid them).That weakens the mayor's defense because it explains how it could be true both that the mayor paid all the bills he got and that he was taking a bribe by letting the consultant pay for him.

[LearntheLSAT]

Hi PS,

I got this right on BR, but I'm trying to discredit my original answer choice of E. I chose E because I thought it weakened the argument. Can you explain more on why E doesn't work. I see B more clearly attacks the argument, but is E irrelevant or was I just shooting in the dark?

Thanks!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi LearntheLSAT,

First, I LOVE that you are still spending time thinking through this question even though you got it correct. This is critical work to do, and I'm glad to see you taking the time to do it.

Ok, turning to your question. Let's look at the stimulus.

The mayor says that he didn't take bribes, because even though the consultant paid for improvements to his house, the mayor paid for all bills presented to him. To simplify, the mayor is saying "I paid all the bills I saw, so I must not have taken any bribes." That's a lot different than paying the full cost of something. Bribes often are less explicit. For example, a lobbyist may want to get on a mayor's good side, and decide to just so happen to have an extra jumbo jet lying around. No one would really support the mayor saying "I didn't get a bill for the jet, so it wasn't bribery."

For answer choice (E) tells us that the amount of money the city paid the consultant more than the cost to improve the mayor's house. Does that weaken the claim that the mayor didn't take bribes? Even if the consultant got paid more for his consulting than he paid out in potential mayor bribes, that doesn't impact the likelihood of the bribes existing. We need an answer choice that addresses the mayor's contention that the paying his bills is enough to show no bribery. This one doesn't address the mayor's bills, but the consultant's paychecks.

Hope that helps!
Rachael