Obstruction of Justice Scandals

Criticized the jury in his criminal hush-money case during an interview in violation of a gag order imposed by the judge and was fined $1,000 and warned that his next violation may result in jail time

Blatantly and repeatedly violated a gag order which prohibited him from verbally attacking witnesses, jurors and family members of court staff in his New York hush money trial and was ordered to remove all posts that ran afoul of the gag order and pay a $9,000 fine by the judge who held him in contempt

Promised to pardon his personal aide and "body man" Walt Nauta if he was convicted of lying to the FBI about his knowledge of Trump's illegal retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago if he becomes President again

Lied under oath in a deposition and also at trial about his role in falsely asserting that Trump's private apartment in Trump Tower was nearly three times larger than it actually was on official tax forms

Illegally obtained over $45,000 in Small Business Covid-Relief Funds out of $150,000 he applied for by claiming that dormant companies he owned with no employees actually had 6 employees and revenue of $800k and then lied to federal agents when they questioned him about it

Urged his longtime personal assistant to lie to federal authorities investigating his illegal retention of classified documents by telling her point-blank "you don't know anything about the boxes" which CNN chief legal analyst Elie Honig characterized as "textbook obstruction of justice" and "textbook witness tampering" that has the protentional to be "really devastating" for Trump

Took advantage of his position as mayor to muscle himself onto a negotiating team involved with a $320 million MLB stadium project and later shared confidential information with the owner of the team with the expectation of getting "at least" a million-dollar political donation in return and then lied to federal agents when they questioned him about it

Brazenly called for the former Lt. Governor of Georgia to refuse to testify before a grand jury criminally investigating him for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state which multiple legal experts characterized as "witness tampering in real time"

Brazenly and publicly refused a judge's order to appear in court and face defamation charges brought against him by a local hospital

Stole roughly $1 million from a NYC police officers union by filing falsified expense reports for personal items including lavish meals and luxury clothing and over-inflating the amount he should be reimbursed for countless other expenses for over four years to such a degree that prosecutors described it as a "personal piggy bank" and then lied to federal officials when they confronted him

Ordered a Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker to move and hide 64 boxes filled with highly classified and sensitive information after receiving a subpoena that ordered him to return all government documents in his possession

Pressured his personal attorney Evan Corcoran to lie to investigators about classified documents illegally in his possession and further asked, "what happens if we just don't respond at all or don't play ball with them"

Hid boxes filled with classified and highly sensitive government documents after his boss Donald Trump was subpoenaed for them which were later found when the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago and then lied to federal agents when they questioned him about it

Ordered his personal aide and "body man" Walt Nauta to move and hide 64 boxes filled with highly classified and sensitive information after receiving a subpoena that ordered him to return all government documents in his possession

Stored top-secret and classified documents he illegally took with him to Mar-a-Lago at the conclusion of his term in his unsecured office, bathroom, bedroom, ballroom and storage room in plain view for tens of thousands of guests and potential US adversaries to see and lied to his own attorneys about his knowledge of any classified documents in his possession which resulted in his lawyer unwittingly submitting a false sworn certification of that fact to federal investigators

Was possibly complicit in having a surveillance video storage room "accidentally" flooded in a failed attempt to cover up crimes with classified documents (the FBI recovered incriminating video anyways), or it is a total coincidence that a maintenance worker -- not just any worker but one who previously helped Trump's aide move boxes with classified documents -- would be careless enough to drain a pool damaging a room at a $200k initiation fee resort that contained additional videos the FBI had an active subpoena for

Coached a witness to subvert justice and achieve a legal outcome he supposedly desired by giving them false information that prosecutors contend was meant to affect their testimony

Pressured a sexual abuse victim's elderly parents to convince their son to retract his accusation that he knew about rampant sexual abuse by a team doctor he worked with and turned a blind eye to it for years

Refused repeated police commands to hand over an iPad they had a search warrant for and then "actively" resisted the officers as they placed her in handcuffs

Lied to a judge under oath about financial transfers he made in violation of a previous court order which resulted in a judge sentencing him to 10 days in jail and fining him $181,760

Lied to a judge about working for Goldman Sachs during a bail hearing for a friend who was accused of fraud

Refused to comply with a subpoena from NY Attorney General that demanded he turn over certain business records and was fined $10,000 a day and $110,000 in total by the judge who held him in contempt

Failed to pay over $625k in court-ordered child support even after a judge found he easily had the finances to do so and was held in contempt of court and jailed until he paid it off in full

Falsely asserted she was a paralegal to federal authorities so she could enter an immigration detention facility her romantic partner was being held at

Encouraged potential suspects and other witnesses to destroy evidence and lie to a federal grand jury investigating members of the far-right domestic terrorist group Oath Keepers and their involvement in the 1/6 insurrection in messages on an encrypted chat messaging board

Was indicted for official misconduct in office and tampering with a witness in an apparent attempt to cover his tracks

Forged signatures on at least nine absentee voter applications for people who were unaware he was submitting the request and lied to the county clerk by attesting he had permission to deliver the applications

Defied a Congressional subpoena requiring him to testify before the 1/6 Committee using specious claims of executive privilege and was sentenced to 4 months in jail

Filed a false police report erroneously claiming that a young child was being forced to perform sex acts on male customers at an adult bookstore he worked at which resulted in police using up valuable resources and time to investigate his accusation

Personally attempted to contact a 1/6 Committee witness presumably to pressure them to not disclose any damaging information about him when they testified before the committee

Strongly hinted that he would pardon people convicted of crimes related to the 1/6 insurrection by saying he'll be "looking at them very, very seriously," but only if they didn't cooperate with authorities

Defied a Congressional subpoena requiring him to testify before the January 6th Committee by citing legally dubious claims of executive privilege

Showed his disdain for the criminal justice system by having the audacity to assert that hours spent working on his political campaign counted towards the 40 hours of community service he was ordered to serve following a 2020 trespassing conviction

Accepted a $30,200 campaign contribution from Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury through three "straw donors" and then lied to federal authorities after they confronted him about it

Falsely asserted he lived in the city of Baltimore on his official candidacy paperwork when he actually lived in the suburbs and was therefore ineligible to run for office in the city

Schemed to cover up evidence of his acceptance of bribes by lying to federal authorities who confronted him and "counseled" his coconspirator how to mislead federal investigators on multiple occasions without knowing that he was working as a cooperating witness

Lied under oath to the House Intelligence Committee about his contacts with WikiLeaks around the time they released stolen emails the Russian government hacked from Hillary Clinton's server, falsely named Randy Credico as his "back-channel" to the head of WikiLeaks in a subsequent letter to the committee and then urged Credico to either back him up or invoke his Fifth Amendment right to stay silent

Took photos or a video up a woman's skirt while she was seated at a state House legislative meeting and later destroyed his mobile phone after searching "how to completely wipe a phone before police" in a failed attempt to delete evidence which police were able to recover through other means

Repeatedly lied under oath to the grand jury investigating a wide-ranging State House corruption scandal that involved his own son in an act that violated a plea agreement he made with state prosecutors to truthfully testify before the group

Tried to bribe the NC state insurance commissioner with a $1.5 million donation to his reelection bid and another $250k donation from the NC Republican party in exchange for favorable treatment for a business associate friend of his and then lied to the FBI when they confronted him

Communicated through close intermediaries to his personal lawyer Michael Cohen that he would pardon him if he didn't cooperate with prosecutors and provide them with potentially damaging information about his business and financial dealings days after the FBI raided Cohen's office and residence

Publicly signaled he would pardon his former campaign manager Paul Manafort if he refused to cooperate with the Mueller investigation after it was reported Manafort repeatedly lied to federal investigators in violation of his earlier plea agreement

Accepted over $900,000 from a well-connected political consultant in exchange for acting in his client's interests in secret by not disclosing the true source of the funds as required by state law and later lied to a grand jury about it in an attempt to cover it up

Used a government-issued credit card for personal expenses including gasoline, claimed mileage for trips that he used a government-owned vehicle for, pressured a witness to lie to federal investigators and lied to investigators himself

Blatantly disregarded a new law that prevented the targeting of people of Latino descent showing complete disdain for "law and order" while also having had espoused excessive over-the-top rhetoric that claimed the opposite and was found guilty of criminal contempt of court

Voted in a district he no longer resided in and later unsuccessfully tried to bribe a local Housing Authority employee into falsifying a letter to election officials that attested he had only temporarily moved out of the district in exchange for a donation to the county Housing Authority

Illegally paid Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson $73,000 to switch his 2016 Presidential candidate endorsement from Michelle Bachmann to Ron Paul and then falsified campaign reports to cover it up

Conspired with a business executive to hide $524,000 in assets owed to an insurance company that was then left on the hook for a $6 million contract his coconspirator failed to fulfill and then intentionally lied to an IRS investigator when questioned about it

Repeatedly lied under oath and made false statements to the chief judge of a federal court by falsely claiming her had never hit, kicked, or punched his ex-wife when in fact he had done all three on multiple occasions

Illegally structured hush money payments of $1.7 million to elude federal bank reporting requirements in order to hide the fact he was paying the victim of his past sex crimes and then lied to Federal investigators about it

Illegally used his family, employees and friends as "straw donors" to donate $100k each to two political candidates and later interfered with the criminal case by attempting to influence a government witness

Accepted 50k to secretly and illegally lobby for the USA to remove a sanctioned organization from the "specially designated global terrorist" list and then lied to the FBI when they questioned him

Accepted $255,000 worth of lavish home renovations and over $236,000 in rental payments from billionaire business developer Eitan Wertheimer in exchange for using his position as NYPD Commissioner to lobby on Wertheimer's behalf with city officials, failed to report the additional income on his federal taxes and lied to federal investigators when confronted about it

Lied to a committee of judges investigating him for sexual harassment in an effort to shield himself from consequences for his behavior in what one law professor characterized as "sort of mind-blowing" for a federal judge to obstruct justice as it "betrayed his oath in the most fundamental way"

Offered to forgive one of his sexual assault victim's debt owed to him if her mother agreed to not pursue charges against him and urged another victim to lie to the police when they questioned her about his assault

Lied under oath to a Senate committee about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff by falsely testifying that he had no special relationship with him when in fact he was intimately involved in blocking the approval of a Native American casino that Abramoff opposed

Accepted over $170k worth of international and domestic trips, meals and drinks totaling "many thousands of dollars," tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, box suite tickets to concerts and sporting events and numerous free fundraisers paid for by Jack Abramoff in exchange for supporting and/or opposing legislation that would benefit Abramoff and then lied under oath to a congressional committee when questioned about his actions

Stole $6,200 dollars from the sheriff department's bank account which he used to pay for his re-election parties in 1998 and 2002 and to reimburse an employee for a travel expense and then obstructed justice by attempting to cover his tracks on expense reports