In these 10 instances, however, politicians and gangsters worked together for a variety of purposes, some more defensible than others. They could use their significant influence to elect public officials who were sympathetic to their interests. Of course, not all of those interests were necessarily noble, but that did not matter much to the politicians involved. The bootlegging operations of Esposito and the Genna Brothers provided them with significant influence, but that influence also put them at odds with another local gangster, Al Capone. His political party spent $50,000 on a Washington law firm to lobby against the request.