Obstruction of Justice Scandals

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

Coerced a subordinate into taking an online certification course he personally would profit from with the help of his chief deputy who proctored the sham exam and submitted the results to state officials

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 he 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

Improperly intervened to facilitate the release of at least four undocumented immigrants who should have been turned over to federal officials at the request of business leaders in town who personally asked him to intervene while also being a "tough on crime" conservative

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

Gave an illegal $20,000 campaign contribution to Republican Senate candidate Wendy Long using a "straw donor" and then lied to federal officials when they questioned him

Lied to state officials investigating a wide-ranging scandal involving state Republican Speaker Mike Hubbard and other legislators about his knowledge of Hubbard's actions and how it affected his political success or failure

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

Threatened to kill his boss's campaign manager and her dog if she went through with testifying in her trial which scared her so much that she requested police protection from him

Urged his subordinate and woman he was having an extramarital affair with to lie to investigators about their sexual relationship

Illegally used campaign funds to pay for various personal expenses including gambling debts, membership fees in fishing clubs and carnival organizations and numerous other personal expenses for his family and then falsely reported to state officials that the expenses were for campaign-related activities

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

Lied on a sworn affidavit where he falsely claimed to have no assets in an attempt to have taxpayers pay for a court-appointed attorney to represent him at his trial when in reality he had more than enough assets and collateral to pay for his own attorney

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