Republican Political Scandals List

Accepted over $150,000 in cash and gifts including premium NY Mets season tickets, a discounted beachfront apartment, custom-made 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 they had

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 Georgia prosecutor who Fanni Willis 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 campaign fund and a nonprofit organization to a PAC supporting his candidacy to help his failed 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

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

Conspired with former state House Speaker Larry Householder to accept $60 million in bribes 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

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

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

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 multiple 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”

Stole $159k from his election campaign and spent it on personal expenses by routing funds through a political consulting firm that in turn paid him over a series of transactions

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

Refused to disclose which company he held as much as $25 million worth of stocks in on his legally mandated disclosure forms which makes it impossible for an average taxpayer to ever know if he favored this unknown company in his rulings

Violated the law by failing to disclose interviews that discussed his far-right views on gay rights, female contraception and other hot-button topics with Christian radio stations in paperwork he submitted to the Senate after Trump nominated him to become a federal judge

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

Deceived US Senators considering his nomination to become a federal judge by removing his name from a rightwing law review article he was the sole author of that openly criticized President Obama's policies towards vulnerable communities and replaced it with those of two colleagues at his legal group after Trump nominated him to become a federal judge

Slapped his legislative aide across the face and instructed him to go stand in a corner after he drunkenly interrupted a conversation to ask his aide if he had recently "slept with" the woman he was talking with

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

Helped Donald Trump avoid any accountability by asserting federal jurisdiction and ordering Manhattan DA CY Vance to "stand down" in his investigation into Donald Trump's secret payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the months before the 2016 Presidential election in a blatant attempt to prevent the damning details about Trump from becoming public

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

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

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

Illegally submitted dozens of phony voter registrations, absentee ballot requests and absentee ballots from members of the Vietnamese community in her district in the 2020 Iowa Republican primary in an attempt to help her husband Jeremy Taylor's campaign for the US House

Illegally coordinated with the leader of a Republican state PAC to pay an opposition research firm $52,000 to investigate the Democratic candidate for governor in violation of state law barring PACs from working with local and state political parties

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

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

Twice voted from a county he wasn't registered to vote in while keeping his primary residence in another county in violation of state law while also being a vocal law & order candidate who subscribed to the conspiracy theory that there was fraud in the 2020 election

Twice voted from a county he wasn't registered to vote in while keeping his primary residence in another county in violation of state law while also being a vocal law & order candidate who subscribed to the conspiracy theory that there was fraud in the 2020 election

Was found visibly drunk in the driver's seat of his vehicle with the engine running outside of a bar and was arrested after he failed a field sobriety test, but not before he unsuccessfully attempted to get out of trouble by falsely asserting that the state legislator was in a special session and he was therefore immune from prosecution

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

Used an illegal ID card he made that implied he was a state employee to vote in multiple elections

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

Unsuccessfully tried to coax an underage 20-year-old female he provided alcohol to into giving him sexual favors in order to avoid an underage drinking ticket after he got caught with her in a bar and had to safe face because he was a police officer

Threatened to plant illegal contraband in his 19-year-old lady friend's car if she ever told anyone about their sexual escapades that sometimes took place while he was on duty at police headquarters

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

Issued an egregiously bad ruling that helped protect Donald Trump by hamstringing the FBI's ability to reclaim classified government documents he illegally took with him to Mar-a-Lago by 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

Accepted three $5k checks from a local business owner in exchange for a proposing an ordinance that would personally benefit them

Failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of taxable income to the government and siphoned even more to himself through a PAC that he earned from working as an unregistered foreign agent and lobbyist for the Venezuelan government

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

Impregnated a criminal defendant his office prosecuted sometime during their two-month affair and then rescinded her pretrial diversion agreement presumably out of payback for telling his wife about the affair and baby

Engaged in an extramarital affair with a woman who was serving jury duty in the court he was prosecuting cases in and would often boast to her that he "don't have no boss" who could reprimand him for it

Had an extramarital affair with a probation officer who worked closely with defendants he presumably could have secured convictions on which makes him vulnerable to claims of bias in court

Had sex with a married woman who was actively involved in a case in his courtroom and didn't recuse himself or disclose his behavior

Illegally paid $92,800 in taxpayer funds to his legislative aide's relatives to pay for rent at two cottages located well outside his district by falsely declaring that one cottage was his district office which entitled him to a taxpayer funded stipend

Used his influence as a US Rep. to convince a judge to order the arrest and jailing of the husband of a woman he was having an extramarital affair with on bogus kidnapping charges so he could continue seeing her unabated

Secretly paid over $12 million to four women to keep them from going public with their allegations of sexual misconduct and made each of them sign a nondisclosure agreement to ensure their accusations never saw the light of day

Stole a lawn sign that belonged to a political opponent of his while driving in a truck owned by county taxpayers mere months after being caught on video stealing the same opponent's sign from the parking lot of a private business

Impersonated a city compliance officer on at least two occasions so he could order people to remove campaign signs his opponent had displayed at local businesses while also portraying himself as a fierce defender of law and order

Secretly paid $1.6 million to a female Washington Commanders employee who accused him of sexual assault in order to keep her from going public with her allegations

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

Unlawfully destroyed official documents in burn bags -- to the point that his wife complained to top Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson that "all of his suits smell like a bonfire" -- and flushed others down the toilet in violation of a federal law that mandates all of a President's records must be sent to the National Archives presumably to cover up some sort of misconduct

Used $1,929.07 in campaign funds to pay for 11 months' worth of dues to gain "unlimited access" to a private social and dining club located in Texas

Spent $3,147.06 in campaign funds to pay for an extravagant dinner at a private social and dining club that the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics reported was likely a personal expense and not a fundraising event as he claimed