Republican Political Scandals List

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

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

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

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Impregnated a criminal defendant his office prosecuted sometime during their two-month affair and then rescinded her pretrial diversion agreement presumably out of payback for telling his wife about the affair and baby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 demanded that each of them signs a nondisclosure agreement to ensure their accusations never saw the light of day

Entered private property without permission and 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

Cast three ballots in other people's names in a general election and in one other person's name in a primary election held in 2021

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

Spent roughly $100,000 in campaign donations on personal expenses that included a down payment on a home, luxury cars and childcare expenses

Accepted a $2 billion investment from a major investment fund managed by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- a major Trump ally during his Administration -- mere months after he stopped working at the Trump White House

Failed to disclose gifts he received from foreign governments in 2020 in a clear violation of the Constitutional ban explicatively prohibiting Presidents from accepting gifts from foreign leaders without Congressional approval

Illegally voted in multiple elections and even represented a district he didn't actually live in after using his parents address as his own on his voter registration

Stole an unknown amount from parking meters that was supposed to be deposited into a government bank account and sold government office furniture through a social media account with the intention of keeping the money he made from the sale

Accepted an illegal $24,000 bribe in exchange for pressuring other state lawmakers to contract with a fake consulting company the state speaker of the house secretly created

Registered to vote from NC mobile home he never visited in violation of state law that says it's illegal to vote from an address where you are not a legal resident

Broke security protocols by sharing live images of a briefing U.S. Representatives & Senators had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy despite being asked not to share any posts or images until the meeting had concluded

Unlawfully destroyed official documents in burn bags and by ripping them up and flushing them down the toilet in violation of a federal law that mandates all of a President's records must be sent to the National Archives

Swerved in and out of his lane while driving fifteen miles 50-mph in a 35-mph zone and went on a profanity-laden rant against his arresting officers where he threatened to get them fired and self-assuredly said he was going to call in political favors to make his charges disappear and when in custody took a breathalyzer test which was more than three times the legal limit

Funneled $25,000 of a Russian oligarch's money to the Trump 2016 campaign in exchange for a ticket and access to Trump during a Republican National Committee event

Pardoned a husband-wife duo who pointed an assault-style rifle and handgun at a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who were peacefully marching near their home even after they told reporters that they didn't regret their actions and promised they would do it again if it came to it

Voted twice using two different but similar sounding names in the 2020 election

Routinely accosted Fox News producer Andrea Mackris with graphic sexual conversations he initiated during all hours of the night and during work functions, unsuccessfully solicited her and a friend of hers to have group sex and tried to persuade her to have phone sex with him all after totally ignoring her repeated demands that he stop and later paid her $9 million to resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit she brought against him all while being married

Snorted cocaine with a paid escort he also presumably had sex with inside an Orlando hotel room he paid for with campaign funds

Illegally gave $44,708 to an acquaintance of his who shared the same last name as Democratic state senator to run a fake campaign as an Independent candidate with the sole intent being to confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent in an election which was won by Republican Ileana Garcia by just 32 votes

Pressured Georgia's Secretary of State to illegally "find 11,780 votes" that would overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory in the state

Accepted thousands of dollars' worth of home remodeling and repairs in addition to securing employment for a woman he was having an affair with from wealthy real estate developer Nate Paul in exchange for investigating Paul's business adversaries and helping him settle a lawsuit in his favor

Spent over $600,000 in campaign funds on personal expenses including his mortgage, paying off personal loans, multiple vehicles, a motor home, family vacations and a host of other things that had nothing to do with his campaign

Commuted the life sentence of a drug kingpin who was imprisoned for his role in the killing of an undercover police officer and who was later sent to jail after being convicted for strangling his wife

Pardoned his former top-adviser Steve Bannon before his case went to trial for stealing one million dollars from donors to an online charity fundraiser to build a wall on the Mexico border

Pardoned Republican mayor of Mettawa, IL and brother of famed NFL player Brian Urlacher who was charged with being a leader of a multi-million dollar illegal offshore sports gambling ring led by the Chicago mob after personally meeting with the former player at the White House and before the case against his brother had concluded

Pardoned former Republican Rep. Rick Renzi who served time in prison for corruption giving credence to a public relations campaign he led that baselessly accused the DOJ of wrongfully imprisoning him

Pardoned former Republican Rep. Robin Hayes who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his role in a $1.5 million bribery scheme following a request from Republican Senator Thom Tillis

Pardoned notorious former Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham who served an eight-year prison sentence for raking in $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors

Incited the January 6th insurrection on the Capitol by fomenting a large crowd into a frenzy and directing them to do whatever they can to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential victory

Pardoned four Blackwater security contractor criminals after serving only a little over a year of long sentences (three 15-year and one life) for murdering 14 Iraqi civilians and injuring 20 more of which George W. Bush's appointed commander of the Iraq war at the time General Petraeus called "hugely damaging, an action that tells the world that Americans abroad can commit the most heinous crimes with impunity"

Honored a request from Senator Rand Paul to pardon two aides who worked on his father Ron's 2012 Presidential campaign and were convicted for bribing a state senator $73,000 to change his vote in the Iowa caucuses

Rewarded his 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort with a pardon after he served less than two years of his 7-year sentence for breaking his plea deal by lying to investigators about information potentially damaging to Trump

Pardoned his senior adviser Roger Stone as a reward for him refusing to testify against Trump after publicly bashing the US Attorneys who prosecuted the criminal obstruction and witness tampering case against him

Rewarded Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan with a pardon after he refused to cooperate with the Mueller investigation and served a 30-day sentence for lying to the FBI about his work with top Trump adviser Rick Gates and an individual tied to Russian intelligence services

Pardoned former border agent Gary Brugman who served a two-year prison sentence for violently striking two detained undocumented immigrants who were complying with orders posing no threat of which he defended his actions instead of expressing remorse

Pardoned the wife of disgraced Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter who pleaded guilty to stealing campaign contributions for personal use

Pardoned his son-in-law's father Charles Kushner who served 14 months in prison in the early 2000's for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering 14 years after he concluded his sentence which benefits his namesake company by making it much easier for them to secure financing for major projects

Pardoned former Rep. and early 2016 campaign supporter Duncan Hunter who admitted to stealing campaign contributions for personal use days before he was set to begin his 11-month prison sentence

Pardoned former Rep. Chris Collins as a reward for being the first member of Congress to endorse his 2016 campaign resulting in him only serving 10 weeks of a 26-month prison sentence for insider trading

Commuted former Republican Rep. Steve Stockman's ten-year prison sentence after serving only two years for stealing $1.25 million meant for a charity but using it for personal expenses and to fund his campaign instead

Pardoned his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos who lied to the FBI about his many interactions with top Russian intelligence officials who claimed they had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton that could help the Trump campaign and used the occasion to lash out at Special Counsel Robert Mueller for prosecuting him in the first place

Funneled hundreds of millions of dollars through two shell companies connected to his son-in-law to hide its spending during the 2020 Presidential campaign

Rewarded former national security adviser Michael Flynn with a pardon after he stopped cooperating with investigators following his guilty plea for lying to the FBI over his communications with top Russian officials before he was sentenced and without consulting with the Justice Department first

Unsuccessfully pushed Georgia's Secretary of State to illegally discard thousands of legally cast ballots from the 2020 Presidential election

Prescribed opioids to several family members and his romantic partner in violation of rules prohibiting doctors from treating and prescribing medication to people they are close with

Had a yearslong extramarital affair with a woman who worked for a Republican state senator and was able to keep it secret by using a fake Uber account to rendezvous with her and then facilitated her transfer to a job working for a wealthy business executive and donor he was criminally involved with

Sexually harassed an assistant of hers so incessantly that she eventually filed a 42-page complaint against Fox News which resulted in them paying her a secret multimillion-dollar settlement

Gave his 2020 Republican acceptance speech from the White House lawn in what one expert described as an “abomination” that “may be the most visible misuse of official position for private gain in America’s history”

Illegally used a local UPS store as his legal address for voting purposes in violation of state election law

Threatened to charge a 17-year-old rape victim who reported her stepfather for sexually molesting her since she was only 5 years with making false claims and didn't report her accusations to the state Department of Social and Health Services as required by state law, which allowed the offender to remain free for another year until a nearby police department arrested the relative

Received over $400k in federal COVID relief by falsely claiming two defunct businesses were still operational

Crashed her SUV into a ditch and then told the police who arrived and observed vomit in her car and a strong odor of alcohol on her breath that "I am absolutely out of my mind. I am so intoxicated," failed a field sobriety test and refused a breathalyzer test and tried to get out of trouble by telling the officers that she was a judge -- several times -- and demanded they call a sheriff's deputy in a not-so-veiled attempt to avoid getting arrested for drunk driving

Crashed his pickup truck into a ditch, almost fell over getting out, had bloodshot eyes, slurred his words, acted belligerently, refused to do field sobriety tests telling police “I ain’t gonna do a goddamn thing you want” and then tried to use his position in government to get out of trouble by repeatedly demanding that the deputy call the local sheriff on his behalf

Cashed in between $1.275 and $3.1 million in stocks from companies seen as vulnerable to the burgeoning COVID-19 outbreak over a series of 27 transactions that began mere hours after she received a confidential Senate briefing

Asked people who no longer lived in her home district to break the law and vote there anyway in two different elections, one of which she only won by 117 votes

Accepted bribes during a lavish trip to Las Vegas which included $10k in cash, a free room, sex with an escort and a nearly $35,000 tab at a night club in exchange for directing major development projects to a prominent businessman in Los Angeles

Improperly directed $105,000 in court-appointed legal work to his son who was an attorney in the public defenders office

Pardoned a Republican House candidate and QAnon conspiracy theorist who was a major Trump backer and previously served two years in prison for her role in an organized auto theft ring back in 2004

Pardoned former New York police commissioner and vocal Trump supporter Bernard Kerik who illegally received over $250,000 from a company with suspected connections to organized crime four years after his prison sentence concluded after lobbying from his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani

Rewarded business executive Paul Pogue who served three years' probation for failing to pay over $400k in taxes with a pardon months after his son and daughter-in-law donated $238,541 to Trump's reelection campaign

Violated campaign finance law by coordinating with a Super PAC that ran political attack ads against his opponents without reporting the ads as a gift as required by state and federal law and was fined $178,000 by The Missouri Ethics Commission

Rewarded convicted murderer Patrick Baker -- who had only served two years of his 19-year sentence -- with a pardon after his family donated $29,500 to his reelection campaign

Pardoned a man who murdered his 6-week-old baby so brutally that "the seams between the bones in his skull were pushed half an inch apart" after he had only served 18-years of his life sentence

Pardoned a man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl roughly one year into his 23-year sentence

Pardoned a man convicted of sodomizing an unconscious 15-year-old boy with a sex toy less than 4 years into his 15-year sentence

Pardoned a man convicted of sexually abusing his 6-year-old stepdaughter

Pardoned former Army Major Mathew Golsteyn before his trial started for the premeditated murder of an unarmed and detained Afghan man because they suspected him of being a bombmaker

Pardoned former Army lieutenant Clint Lorance after serving only 6 years of a 19-year sentence for the war crime of ordering the shooting of two unarmed Afghanistan men

Discussed highly sensitive and classified intelligence with Russia's Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US that worried US officials so much they secretly extracted one of its most senior covert intelligence assets inside of Russia out of fear for their safety

Illegally collected Social Security Disability and retirement benefits from the government by neglecting to inform them about the more than $132,000 he earned working on political campaigns which would have drastically reduced the number of benefits he would have been eligible for

Accepted cash bribes totaling over $150,000 from the co-owner of orthodontic clinics in exchange for his efforts to help overturn a dental practices law he didn't like

Pardoned personal friend Conrad Black who published a fawning book with a title calling him a "President Like No Other" and previously served time for scheming to siphon off millions of dollars from the newspaper company he was CEO of

Pardoned former Army lieutenant Michael Behenna who was convicted of murdering an unarmed Iraqi detainee and attempting to cover it up after Republican Governor Mary Falin and state AG Mike Hunter personally intervened on his behalf

Pardoned his late mentor's grandson who was convicted of felony drug trafficking and tried to keep it secret in a breach of precedent in which governors usually publicly identify the names of people they pardoned

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

Ordered that his son-in-law Jared Kushner receive a top-secret security clearance over the objection of national security and intelligence officials who recommended he be denied clearance due to his business ties in foreign countries

Confiscated the notes taken by a staffer who interpreted a meeting between himself and Vladimir Putin and ordered them to not divulge details of the conversation even to senior members in his Administration, which former deputy secretary of state Strobe Tallbott said gave Putin "much more scope to manipulate Trump" because senior Administration officials are left in the dark

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

Illegally paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money to keep her from going public about an extramarital affair they had by directing his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to pay her off and agreeing to reimburse him in monthly installments one month before the 2016 election in violation of campaign-finance laws

Received 16 trademarks from the Chinese government on items ranging from handbags to jewelry three months *after* she supposedly shut down her brand ostensibly to focus on working for her dad in the White House

Received special treatment from the Chinese government who fast tracked 34 of her company's patent applications in one year alone which led to various ethics groups questioning whether Trump made foreign policy decisions that benefited himself and his family’s businesses