The topic of bribery has come up in more than one data center story.
Someone suggested buying houses for detractors in Georgia, and in Kentucky Western Hospitality Partners was reported to be offering to throw in a sports complex to the county.
James Clifton, politician and lawyer in Georgia played a recording of a meeting behind closed doors about data centers, this was revealed at a town meeting in Peachtree City Georgia where someone was suggesting they simply give free houses to the prominent data center resistance organizers to buy them off and shut them up.
Released audio with Western Hospitality Partners led to accusations of bribery because of talk promising to build a sports complex was offered in exchange for fast-tracking a data center project ahead of a moratorium in Oldham County Kentucky. The Deputy Judge, Joe Ender was reportedly fired for recording the meeting, and eventually an AG investigation decided illegal bribery had not taken place, but this data center project was cancelled in Kentucky. This is the same Western Hospitality Partners that had a data center project cancelled in Lordstown Ohio and a data center project cancelled in Pekin Illinois. A Western Hospitality Partners data center project was denied rezoning in one town in Indiana, but is now being proposed one in another Indiana town. Project Gravity by Archbald 25 LLC, one of many data center projects proposed in Archbald Pennsylvania was initially filed with the Pennsylvania government as Western Hospitality Partners.
Unfortunately a lot of what many of us would probably consider forms of bribery is actually legal in Pennsylvania and indeed considered legal in the U.S.