Republican Political Scandals List

Displayed a flag the far-right adopted as a symbol of support for Trump, used by insurrectionists on 1/6 and associated with the far-right Christian Nationalist movement known as the “Appeal to Heaven” or "Pine Tree" flag outside of his vacation home in New Jersey periodically over a three-month period while participating in numerous active cases stemming from the insurrection up to and including those involving Trump

Displayed an upside-down American Flag, a signal of dire distress and something Trump supporters hijacked in the days after his 2020 loss, outside of his home days after the 1/6 insurrection and before Biden was sworn in to office while participating in numerous cases stemming from the insurrection up to and including those involving Trump at the same time and then blamed his wife when reporters questioned him about it

Pardoned an admittedly racist convicted murderer who made good on his online threats to confront and shoot protesters by killing an Air Force veteran peacefully participating in a protest one year into his 25-year sentence

Diverted more than $25,000 in campaign contributions to an entity that he was the sole proprietor of and was located at his home address by falsely claiming the money was used to pay rent on office space for his political campaign

Asked wealthy oil executives to spend $1 billion to elect him in 2024 and promised to throw out environmental regulations designed to combat global climate change on "Day 1" as a reward if he were to return to the White House

Declined to recuse himself from a Supreme Court case determining whether Donald Trump is immune from criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election despite the fact that his wife Ginni was intimately involved in the scheme to prevent Biden from becoming President

Stole over $132,000 from multiple political accounts to pay for vacations with his family, housing costs and personal credit card statements by siphoning money from a loosely regulated political account that prosecutors alleged he used as his own "unregulated slush fund" into his own pocket

Drank so much alcohol at a political dinner and gala that servers cut her off and told her she couldn't have any more because she was noticeably drunk

Illegally voted in nine elections between 2008 and 2011 while he was on probation for a prior felony conviction and ineligible to vote in Georgia while also having hypocritically spread baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and was later fined $5,000 and given a public reprimand by the judge overseeing his case

Ordered his personal aide and "body man" Walt Nauta and Mar-a-lago manager Brian Butler to transfer up to 15 boxes of likely classified information Trump illegally had in his possession to his residence in New Jersey at the very time representatives from the DOJ were meeting with his lawyers to get back the documents he illegally retained

Remained closely tied to his namesake company which ended up raking in at least $7.8 million from 20 different foreign governments throughout his Presidency by having his sons run it instead of placing it in the hands of a neutral arbiter which violated decades of norms and traditions that were in place to prevent a President from profiting off the office

Spewed homophobic and racist taunts against police officers who pulled him over for swerving in and out of his lane and also failed a field sobriety test, refused to take a breathalyzer and threatened the officers by saying that he would "regret" arresting him because he knew the state AG and claimed he could falsely tell him that he was mistreated by the officers

Secretly sold up to $50,000 of Boeing shares mere days before a House committee he was on released a highly critical report about the company and then failed to disclose the sale for more than two months and only reported it after he won reelection in a race he won by a mere 333 votes

Covered up the sexual coercion of a female staff member at Trump Bedminster by manipulating her into signing an unfavorable NDA for a "paltry sum" with huge financial penalties if she violated the terms

Pardoned a convicted drug smuggler who had connections with his son-in-law Jared Kushner's family after her served only two and a half years of his ten-year sentence

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

Fraudulently claimed a 5-by-5-foot closet-size space he rented for $5 a month was his official residence in order to run for office in a district he didn't actually live in

Shared top-secret and highly sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines including the number of nuclear warheads they can carry and how close they can get to Russian submarines without being detected with Australian billionaire and Mar-a-Lago member Anthony Pratt who went on to share what Trump told him with at least 45 other people including foreign officials, his employees and journalists over a year after he left the Presidency

Gave a highly classified binder of FBI documents relating to the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation to two sympathetic right-wing media personalities for propaganda purposes

Stole $9,657 in proceeds from an online auction of old government-owned vehicles

Secretly flew on a private plane to attend events hosted by a right-wing organization which frequently argued cases before the Supreme Court and failed to disclose it which George W. Bush appointed judge John E. Jones III characterized as taking his "breath away" and noted that it would have resulted in a "disciplinary hearing" for any lower court federal judge

Compromised classified information on notecards used to brief him during phone calls with international leaders by using the backs to write every day to-do lists to his personal assistant who was uncleared to access classified information and, unaware, also kept them in her unsecured office in Mar-a-Lago until eventually noticing classified markings and alerting the FBI

Secretly accepted a golf trip without reporting it as required by law in which a major Republican businessman flew him on a private jet to play a round and stay overnight at the Augusta National Golf Club (the most exclusive in the country) and soon after his administration gave his business $92 million in COVID relief funds to fund a major highway project

Accepted over $150,000 in cash and gifts including premium NY Mets season tickets, a discounted beachfront apartment, a bespoke suit and a one-of-a-kind painting by an apprentice of Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí in exchange for helping his co-conspirators gain special access to top officials to get a leg up on various pet projects of theirs

Ordered a politicized impeachment inquiry to shamelessly smear President Biden with ridiculous claims to appease Donald Trump and House MAGA House extremists (with leverage to remove him as Speaker) and presumably to also distract from the myriad of real crimes committed by Trump and his associates

Opened a sham investigation into Jack Smith's prosecution of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators based on ridiculous claims from a lawyer involved in the case presumably to hinder it

Opened a baseless investigation into Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who filed criminal charges against Donald Trump and 18 others, presumably to deflect attention away from the many crimes Trump committed

Lied about receiving degrees from North Carolina Central University, Duke University Divinity School and Hood Theological Seminary when in fact he didn't receive a degree from any of them

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

Illegally transferred $91,000 from his political campaign and a nonprofit organization to an authorized federal campaign committee supporting his candidacy using money not subject to reporting regulations to help his 2016 bid for US Congress and then hid the transactions from the FEC

Violated ethics laws by financing a $267,230 recreational vehicle he couldn't otherwise afford due to debt through a wealthy health care executive of which both parties refused to disclose the terms of the loan presumably because they would appear to be overly favorable

Held an alcohol fueled party in his Congressional office and then drunkenly unloaded on teenage Senate pages by calling them "little sh*ts" and "jack*sses" for not being respectful of the history and grandeur of the US Capitol and told them to "get the f*ck out of" the Capitol rotunda when he came cross them taking pictures following a long day of helping assist US Senators

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

Pushed the IRS to open investigations on FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page in violation of a federal law that prohibits a President from "directly or indirectly" ordering the IRS to investigate or audit individual people

Accepted cash bribes totaling $72,500 to circumvent concealed carry gun laws by giving people fake deputy credentials that allowed them to carry a concealed weapon in any state without a permit

Masterminded a bribery scheme that saw him illegally raking in a whopping $60 million from a state nuclear energy company that in turn was given a $1.3 billion taxpayer bailout for two struggling nuclear power plants it operated

Declined to recuse himself from an investigation into an addiction recovery center he accepted a $6,900 donation from when in a prior case he forced a judge to recuse themself for accepting a donation of only $250

Forged thousands of fake signatures over hundreds of petitions his third-party company conducted that the State AG charged were full of “obvious fraud” and done in such a “sophomoric” way that he misspelled people's names and cities and had signatures of people who were dead or had moved and then submitted them to candidates who contracted his services and proceeded to inadvertently submit the fraudulent petition signatures to election officials

Traveled free of charge on an opulent private jet chartered by billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer to an exclusive Alaskan fishing resort without reporting it on his financial disclosure forms and later voted with the majority in Singer's favor on a case involving his business

Personally lobbied to connect a business executive with prior criminal convictions for theft and fraud with the state comptroller overseeing a multimillion-dollar initiative meant to combat opioid overdoses despite him not having had any experience working on statewide public health initiatives

Illegally transferred $82.5 million from his state political action committee to a super PAC supporting his Presidential bid in violation of a federal campaign finance law that prohibits candidates from spending money that was obtained by people and groups not subject to strict federal requirements

Showed a classified map detailing a secret military operation he illegally retained when he left the White House to a staffer of his PAC after admitting that he shouldn't be showing it to anyone and telling the staffer not to get "too close" to it while meeting with him at his Bedminster golf club

Showed and discussed a top-secret military map that he illegally retained when he left the White House which laid out a "plan of attack" against Iran to a writer, publisher and two staffers who did not have security clearances at an insecure location at his Bedminster golf club

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

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

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

Removed more than a thousand pages of classified documents from the White House on Trump's orders and was seen putting them in the trunk of his car late at night on the final evening of his presidency

Weaponized his GOP committee by threatening FBI Director Christopher Wray with an unprecedented charge of contempt of Congress to get access to a document discredited as not reliable enough to pursue as part of a shameless political smear campaign and sham investigation against Joe Biden without regard to protecting the identities of redacted sources

Called and threatened "several" Texas State Reps with "political consequences" if they voted to impeach him for corruption

Spent $17,303 in campaign funds on personal expenses including family vacations, a professional baseball game, $2,400 worth of clothing and his children's cellphone bills and also failed to provide proper documentation for over $53,000 worth of meals he charged at taxpayers' expense

Pushed the Justice Department to keep open a political investigation looking into the Clinton Foundation long after it became abundantly clear no wrongdoing was found by investigators

Repeatedly slurred his speech and swayed back and forth as he led official proceedings as the Texas Speaker of the House in a way fellow Republican and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton described as "debilitating intoxication"

Drank alcohol "all day and night" despite having serious professional responsibilities including being a lawyer for Donald Trump according to his aide Noelle Dunphy who had a job to make sure he was a "functioning" alcoholic

Discussed classified and sensitive information with Donald Trump on speakerphone while his aide could hear and gave the same aide unfettered access to his email accounts that also contained confidential and highly sensitive information

Failed to report $100,000 in secret payments his wife accepted from a rightwing organization who filed a legal brief arguing to strike down a major part of the Voting Rights Act after which he joined a 5-4 majority doing just that

Defrauded a donor who gave him $535,200 to use on his campaign which he diverted to his personal business accounts instead and broke campaign finance laws by not disclosing it in a scheme multiple campaign finance experts called “unprecedented,” “stunning,” and “jaw-dropping”

Didn't report that the person who purchased a large property he owned -- nine days after he was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice -- was the CEO of a major law firm that regularly argued for conservative causes before the Supreme Court

Didn't report the proceeds from the sale of family property to conservative donor Harlan Crow -- who then allowed Thomas's mother to continue living at rent-free for years -- on his public disclosure records as required by law

Accepted $110,200 in cash and other bribes including thousands of dollars' worth of sex with a prostitute and chartered flights from a businessman and two lobbyists in exchange for approving their medical marijuana business licenses during his time as chair of Michigan's marijuana licensing board

Expelled Democratic State Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson for a one-time rules infraction on the house floor during a gun safety protest whereas only two other members were expelled in the past 150 years for much worse offenses of bribery and sexual harassment

Secretly took luxurious trips over a twenty-year period without disclosing they were paid by ultra-wealthy conservative donor Harlan Crow which included multiple private jet flights, lavish vacations aboard a 162-foot mega yacht and luxury accommodations at resorts throughout the world

Drunkenly told police officers they had no idea “how bad you messed up" and claimed they "cannot detain" him because he was a state representative after getting arrested for ignoring repeated commands to leave a bar that had closed at 2am and could no longer have alcohol consumed on the premises

Misreported $3.5 billion that did not exist in South Carolina's yearly financial report due to a coding error that compounded for 15 years while he was in charge during which he once brandished an "Accounting for Dummies" book at a talk for new employees for dramatic effect and may explain why he ignored repeated warnings by auditors and waited five years to approve a recommended full review that finally uncovered the problem

Intentionally 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

Accepted two loans totaling $8 million for Trump Media from a shadowy entity closely associated with Russian oligarchs at the same time the company was on the verge of dissolution for lack of funding

Lied about being a "former member of law enforcement" who had a specialization in "international sex crimes" when in fact he was a volunteer reserve deputy who had zero involvement in sex trafficking cases and only lasted two years because he had made no progress in his field training and rarely showed up to required meetings

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

Gave Tucker Carlson exclusive access to 41,000 hours of January 6 insurrection footage captured by surveillance cameras throughout the Capitol complex despite the very real possibility that sensitive information pertaining to the security of the Capitol could be made public

Refused to publicly release a final report his own staff spent 10,000 hours on that debunked 2020 election conspiracy theories because it didn't back up his claim that the election was rife with fraud after he publicly claimed he had found "serious vulnerabilities" in the voting system which wasn't true

Swerved in and out of his lane at 2:30am while going nearly 20 mph over the speed limit and was found to have a BAC of over twice the legal limit after police pulled him over and then unsuccessfully tried to exploit his personal relationship with the arresting officer to get out of trouble, which is especially egregious as he was a former sheriff's deputy who served on his legislature's "Public Safety" committee

Lied about earning a second bachelors degree in economics from Middle Tennessee State while also publicly asserting "I'm an economist" on numerous occasions

Accepted over $280k in kickbacks from a local excavation company in exchange for approving over $700k in invoices for purported road work they never performed over an eight-year period

Retaliated against four staffers who reported his alleged corruption to the FBI by maligning them as "rogue employees" and fired or forced them out through other means and later spent $3.3 million in taxpayer dollars to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit which also forced him to apologize for disparaging them

Granted Melania Trump access to the White House Situation Room during a highly secretive US military raid targeting an ISIS leader in a clear breach of rules prohibiting people who lack the proper security clearance from entering the room

Illegally spent over $100,000 in campaign contributions on personal expenses and then tried to cover it up by filing numerous false tax returns

Illegally accepted over $25,000 in campaign contributions from a single family member far exceeding the $5,600 legal limit per person

Repeatedly injected himself into special counsel John Durham's political investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia scandal in order to help Trump and discredit his detractors which led to his second in command resigning in protest and another taking a new job outside of the investigation

Coordinated purchasing and distributing cocaine and methamphetamine with someone who was also a confidential government informant working with the DEA by connecting them with distribution networks in Arizona and California and having the drugs delivered to Pennsylvania through the mail multiple times over a sixteen-month period

Swerved in and out of her lane after 1:00am and soon after refused to take a breathalyzer and field sobriety tests after police reported smelling an "overwhelming alcoholic odor" along with her bloodshot eyes and then namedropped her politically affiliated boss and the local sheriff in an apparent attempt to get out of trouble

Submitted dozens of phony voter registrations, absentee ballot requests and absentee ballots in the 2020 Iowa Republican primary in an attempt to help her husband Jeremy Taylor's campaign for the US House

Broke state law barring PACs from coordinating with local and state political parties by encouraging a Republican state PAC to pay $52,000 for an investigation into the Democratic candidate for governor

Allowed a top campaign aide to impersonate GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy's chief of staff in calls soliciting money from wealthy donors in both the 2020 and 2022 election cycles

Suspiciously listed 37 campaign expenses on purchases like a hotel stay in Miami and other travel expenses as costing $199.99 -- one cent below the legally binding $200 threshold that required itemized receipts -- on his campaign finance forms

Cashed in between $628,000 and $1.72 million in stocks from companies seen as vulnerable to the burgeoning COVID-19 outbreak over a series of 33 separate transactions after receiving confidential briefings as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee

Voted using his former invalid address instead of the one he actually lived at in a different county 60 miles away in the 2022 primary, general and U.S. Senate runoff elections

Lied about earning degrees in economics and finance from Baruch College and New York University when in fact he hadn't earned any college degree at all

Lied about working for Goldman Sachs and also Citigroup as an "associate asset manager" of which both companies confirmed they had no information of him ever working for them

Shared an image taken from a highly secretive spy satellite that could have helped adversaries better understand US spy capabilities to his Twitter followers

Personally fired two Washington Commanders cheerleaders after they accused an NFL player of sexual misconduct and falsely blamed the incident on the victims instead of the player responsible

Raked in thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations and accepted gifts including a suite at an NHL game from wealthy donors in exchange for special treatment helping them obtain concealed weapons permits that her office was in charge of approving

Kept secret credible sexual assault allegations against the Republican Secretary of State for over a month ostensibly to protect him

Repeatedly voted with an illegal ID card that implied he was a state employee

Falsely claimed he was a combat veteran who served under "tough" conditions in the Afghanistan War, but military records show he never actually deployed to Afghanistan and instead spent six months loading planes on a military base in Qatar over 1,000 miles away from the fighting

Filled out and submitted eight absentee ballots for unwitting voters without their knowledge or consent by taking advantage of his position on a local elections board to access their voter information

Convinced a Mormon bishop to keep allegations of child sexual abuse by a member of his church against his daughters secret under false pretenses that he could be sued if he did even though state law in Arizona -- where the alleged abuse took place -- specifically protects people who report child abuse, which allowed the abuse to continue for a number of years

Needlessly interfered to protect Donald Trump by hamstringing the FBI's ability to reclaim classified government documents he illegally took with him to Mar-a-Lago by issuing an egregiously bad ruling appointing a "special master" to review the documents before they could examine them further which was later overturned unanimously by one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country

Made illegal campaign contributions and filed false financial reports to cover it up to promote an independent "ghost candidate" who got 4,800 votes likely swinging the election to the Republican who won by a narrow 300 votes

Created a fictitious consulting company along with state rep. Robin Smith and his chief of staff where they charged taxpayers $51,947 for official mailing services and hid his involvement in the scheme by submitting fake invoices to state officials and also accepted bribes from his chief of staff in exchange for his help in securing government approval for the fake consulting company to operate as an official state vendor

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