He has denied that the gifts were used to buy influence.

"It is the single most aggressive campaign to use money to buy influence in the opening months of a Congress," she said.

But the effort has raised serious questions about whether Chinese or other foreign interests tried to buy political influence.

"Do people who are involved in the political process do it to buy influence?"

One answer is to try to change the incentives of politicians, by making it more difficult for special interests to buy influence.

I have spent a fortune to buy territory, voting, and political influence.

For people who want to buy influence, this will be the loophole of the decade.

China denies that it ever tried to buy influence in the elections.

A campaign contribution, if nothing else, buys access and influence.

When did it come to mean that I can buy influence with money?