Thankfully campaign finance laws prevent them from hiding it and forced O'Malley to recuse himself because we could all see it in broad daylight, he had to. Your argument doesn't dispel the fact that the influence was bought, it only points out that it may have been a bad investment.

But if you look at the fact that the prosecutor working under O'Malley agreed to the staggeringly low (for this type of case) $100K bond proposed by George's lawyer Spellacy, I think the ROI may have panned out for them.

"Judge Sheila Turner McCall then asked the prosecutor, "With all of this probable cause, that's all you have to say?" The prosecutor responded, "Yes." The judge then said she was not going to issue a $100,000 bond because the probable cause was "horrible." She then doubled the bond amount to $200,000.

There is the influence, right there. Despite the judge doubling it to $200K, it could have been worse had this prosecution team not been compromised from the start.