In the recent Painkiller miniseries [1], which is supposed to be about Purdue Pharma, what you describe above is basically how things worked. There's a key sce

In the recent Painkiller miniseries [1], which is supposed to be about Purdue Pharma, what you describe above is basically how things worked. There's a key scene in which Rudy Giuliani calls in some favor, which results in a prosecutor being significantly influenced by the White House. I don't know if this actually precisely happened, but this portrayal on Netflix speaks to "how people thinks this works" and why. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painkiller_(TV_series)