Republican Political Scandals List

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

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 an unsecured private cell phone to speak with friends and acquaintances even after repeated warnings from US intelligence officials that Chinese and Russian spies were listening in on his calls

Claimed he had a paid position on Senator Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign when in fact he had only been an unpaid volunteer

Lied on an official document by attesting that a campaign donor's home he and his family were temporarily residing in was his official address which allowed him to run for a state congressional district that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to since his permanent address was outside district lines

Rewarded Arizona real estate developer Mike Ingram who donated $10,000 to a Trump super PAC a week prior by pardoning two men he advocated for: convicted arsonists Dwight and Steven Hammond who intentionally set a fire on their property to destroy evidence of their illegal poaching that got out of control and spread to federal land

Ignored repeated accusations of sexual molestation by a team physician for a college wrestling team he coached and even told one student athlete that he wanted "nothing to do with this" after they told him about the alleged abuse

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

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

Pardoned radical rightwing filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza six years after his conviction of making illegal campaign contributions after Senator Ted Cruz personally lobbied for it

Pardoned Navy sailor Kristian Saucier who illegally took photographs of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine after he and his lawyers baselessly compared his illegal actions to Hillary Clinton using a private server to send and receive emails during her time as Secretary of State

Hired a prostitute on two separate occasions and took her to a hotel room he used taxpayer dollars to pay for while also being a married father of three who voted for stricter solicitation laws shortly before getting caught

Coerced a manicurist who worked at one of his hotels to remove her clothing and have sex with him while also being married and later secretly paid her $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit she filed against him

Propositioned an aide who was decades younger than him to become romantically involved and then made her life in the office so miserable after she rebuffed his advances that she quit and sued him for sexual harassment, which resulted in him secretly spending thousands of taxpayer dollars to settle while also being married

Forged more than 100 signatures on a candidate petition to ensure he could get on the ballot for the 2018 Republican primary

Sexually harassed a female producer and then secretly worked with Fox News to privately settle her complaint with a deal that allowed her to extend her stay in the U.S. since she wasn't an American citizen

Solicited Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky for sex during private meetings while also being married and then retaliated against her after she rebuffed his advances by denying her a promotion to host her own show and drastically reduced her on-air appearances which resulted in him and Fox News secretly paying her an undisclosed amount of money to settle a lawsuit she filed against him

Openly talked with a male aide about "sexual fantasies" and "wet dreams" he had about his female communications director Lauren Greene and fired her after shortly after she filed a formal complaint and then secretly paid her $84,000 in taxpayer funds from a secretive "Office of Compliance" account after she agreed to drop a federal lawsuit she filed against him

Settled a sexual harassment lawsuit with a confidentiality agreement for $84,000 using a secret taxpayer funded account which kept it from the public for years

Accepted over $4 million from lobbyists working on behalf of his father's consulting firm and then advocated on their behalf for legislation that would benefit them

Routinely "drank to excess” at Capitol Hill functions so much that his staff felt they had to be on "red head patrol" in order to "keep him out of trouble" because he would regularly say sexually improper things to female staff and lobbyists when he was drunk

Sent pictures of himself masturbating to three women -- two whom he had an extramarital affair with -- and threatened to sic the Capitol Police on one of the women he was involved with if she went public with his naked pictures

Shared highly classified information with Russia's Foreign Minister given by Israel in confidence about an undercover mission to penetrate ISIS fighters developing undetectable bombs of which a retired former intelligence officer noted how damaging this was in that ally countries would now "think twice before sharing sensitive information" with the USA because Trump cannot be trusted to keep the information secure

Knew that GOP candidate Wes Goodman unzipped and fondled an 18-year-olds crotch in a hotel room without his consent and could have intervened after the boys stepfather wrote to him about the incident, but concealed the abuse because the lawmaker was in a tight state congressional campaign that he went on to win

Routinely grabbed five female senate staff and lobbyists buttocks, breasts and other parts of their bodies and threatened to retaliate against them by refusing to take meetings with them if they complained about his behavior while also being married

Failed to take appropriate security precautions to keep his personal devices secure during his time at Homeland Security and later as Trump's Chief-of-Staff, potentially exposing his private conversations to US adversaries

Pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio after he was convicted of contempt of court for racially profiling and illegally detaining people of Latino descent before he would be sentenced for his crime

Divulged the existence of a secret CIA program that armed and trained fighters aiming to topple Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from power on his Twitter account

Directed three top White House officials to repeatedly call and threaten Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that a negative article about their private lives would be published in the National Enquirer unless they call him and personally apologize for their negative coverage of him

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

Told his wife's chief of staff Heather Hannah that she better "watch herself" after he found out she helped his wife secretly record intimate conversations with a woman he was having an affair with

Ordered the head of state police Paul Collier to "be prepared to arrest" his wife's chief of staff Heather Hannah in order to prevent her from going public with details of an affair he had with a senior political adviser

Ordered head of the state police Paul Collier to track down a secret recording of him speaking with a woman he was having an extramarital affair with so he could presumably have the recording destroyed

Illegally paid $8,912 in campaign funds to the lawyer of a woman he had an extramarital affair with to help pay her legal fees in an attempt to keep their affair from becoming public

Sexually harassed Fox Business host Rebecca Diamond in such a manner that she decided to record him to have proof of his behavior which led to him and Fox News secretly paying her an undisclosed amount in order to keep her from going public with her recordings

Falsely claimed he earned a business degree from “Forbco Management school” which was actually a certificate he got from a "management course he took when he worked for Sizzler, kind of like Hamburger University at McDonald’s" according to a GOP spokesperson

Directed roughly $600,000 in taxpayer money to a Christian college and another non-profit organization in exchange for a large financial payoff that was facilitated through a third-party consulting company who concealed the bribes

Engaged in a yearlong sexual relationship with a woman who was a defendant in a felony case being litigated in his court and admitted to privately discussing the case with her when confronted

Gave $29,800 in campaign funds to a professional gambler with a long criminal record and an additional $25,000 to his wife, illegally reimbursed himself $11,946.65 from his campaign account for expenses he provided no documentation of and spent thousands more on personal expenses including an airplane ticket for his wife, custom suits, spa products, sunglasses, lawncare and paint for his home office, among many other things

Illegally spent more than $100,000 in campaign funds to invest in a wealthy GOP donor's company

Incessantly tried and failed to convince Fox News host Juliet Huddy to have a sexual relationship with him over repeated phone calls during which she reported it sometimes sounded like he was masturbating and in person (he once answered the door to his hotel room in his boxer shorts after he asked her to return a room key he supposedly needed) and then had Fox News secretly pay her a high six-figure nondisclosure agreement to keep her from going public with her accusations

Discussed showering and having sex with three subordinates in private messages, sent one a private message that said "I think if we had sex there would be very minimal awkwardness afterwards," drank to excess with them in his office and later fired all three after his wife caught him

Received a $38k bribe to funnel $600k in government funds to a private evangelical Christian college and another non-profit organization

Secretly paid $44,500 in taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by his former assistant that he fired after she complained about his behavior

Violated campaign-finance laws by paying former Playboy Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal $150,000 in hush money to keep her from going public about an extramarital affair they had by orchestrating a convoluted payment scheme involving his lawyer Michael Cohen and the tabloid National Enquirer a week and a half before the 2016 election

Refused to publicly release his tax returns before the 2016 election and while he was President which broke over forty years of precedent meant to show that the President does not have any financial conflicts of interest that could affect his decision making

Solicited anchor Gretchen Carlson for sexual favors while also being married and then punished her professionally after she refused his advances in a manner so egregious that Fox News settled a lawsuit she filed for $20 million dollars

Had sex with an intern in his private chambers and then later wrote her a letter of recommendation for a job in the local DA's office while also being a married father of two young children who ran on a platform highlighting the "importance of family" in his life

Had sex with an attorney who practiced in his court in his private chambers while also being a married father of two young children who ran on a platform highlighting the "importance of family" in his life

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

Stole $250,000 from his campaign to spend on everyday personal expenses like family vacations, private school tuition and jewelry in addition to a multitude of expenses that funded at least five extramarital relationships on things like ride shares, bar tabs and hotel rooms

Took bribes including a free vacation to Thailand and a $11k luxury handbag from a military contractor when he was a captain in the Navy

Created a politicized special committee into the 2012 Benghazi attacks -- three years after the attacks happened -- that was designed to undermine Hillary Clinton's standing with the public just as she ramped up her Presidential campaign

Lied about the origins of a $355,000 loan to his 2010 congressional campaign that his parents gave him by falsely asserting the money came from earnings he made working in the private sector

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

Fraudulently accepted at least $500k for her campaign from her husband by falsely reporting the money came from her personal accounts and accepted an additional $30k from four straw donors who concealed that he was the source of the funds

Illegally paid convicted felon and former Governor John Rowland $35,000 under the table to work on her 2012 Republican congressional campaign instead of using campaign funds as required by law

Filed $50,000 in false expense reports to his campaign lying about driving 90,000 more miles than he actually did in reimbursement forms

Sold his home to a major Republican donor for $925,000 --more than three times its assessed value of $255,000 -- at the height of his reelection campaign

Spent tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds on private jets, automobiles, tickets to the Super Bowl, massages and cigars and many other things over a five-year period

Spent over $100,000 in taxpayer money renovating his Congressional office to resemble a room on the show "Downton Abbey"

Rebuffed police commands to exit her vehicle and refused to submit to a breathalyzer and field sobriety test after getting pulled over for speeding and suspicion of driving under the influence and lied about being a "reserve cop" to the arresting officer in an attempt to get out of trouble

Possessed 11,000 business cards that falsely said he was a state rep when he was in fact a private citizen

Funneled roughly $2.3 million to his private businesses by leveraging his status as state Speaker of the House and chair of the Alabama Republican Party to solicit favors from some of Alabama's most influential politicians (including former Gov. Bob Riley) and businesspeople

Threatened to veto $7.5 million in state funding for an office that was investigating one of his signature projects for corruption unless the District Attorney leading it didn't resign after a DUI which would have been an unprecedented move, presumably after which he could replace her with someone more favorable to his interests

Accepted $12,400 in cash bribes in exchange for helping a health insurance broker keep their contract with a local school district

Secretly siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars in unreported campaign donations to his personal accounts and used the money on a myriad of personal expenses including his personal credit card and only escaped charges because he exploited a little-known loophole in Florida's campaign finance laws

Charged local taxpayers to reimburse him $1,331 on expenses he spent entertaining a subordinate he was having an extramarital affair with and on rental cars he used to visit the woman and his wife on different weekends

Pardoned a man who killed an 8-month-old boy in an alcohol-fueled crash who belongs to a politically connected family that donates a lot of money to Republicans

Pardoned a man convicted of shooting and killing his estranged wife and infant son and wounding another man less than twenty years into his life sentence

Pardoned a man convicted of shooting his girlfriend in the back and killing her at a public cafe just over ten years into his life sentence

Pardoned a man who shot his victim twice in the head at point blank range less than twenty years into a life sentence

Pardoned the brother of famed NFL quarterback Brett Favre who killed someone else in a drunk driving crash decades ago and had long since completed his sentence which makes you wonder if the only reason he pardoned him is because he's close with Favre

Pardoned a man convicted of soliciting sexually explicit messages from an underage girl after having a private lunch with a close friend of his family

Paid two felons who weren't legally eligible to vote $2 per signature to fraudulently sign off on petitions for a local ballot proposal he supported

Got naked with a 15-year-old girl in a hot tub when he was in his late twenties and later paid her $150,000 to keep quiet when he ran for US Congress

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

Pardoned a man convicted of killing a man with a cinder block and then buying his body in a shallow grave less than 9 years into his life sentence

Commuted the sentence of a man who later went on to kill four police officers execution style in Lakewood, WA in a crime that wouldn't have happened if the criminal had to complete his 95-year sentence for burglary and robbery

Had his parents pay his close friend and his friend's wife who he had an affair with $96,000 to keep them both quiet and used his influence to get his friend a corporate lobbying job, all of which resulted in him eventually resigning from the senate

Funneled $400k in insurance premiums from a company he owned to his congressional campaign and then later transferred ownership of the company to his wife

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

Accepted free vacations and construction services at his vacation home valued at $107,000 in exchange for directing state contracts to a prominent businessman and also failed to report the income on his taxes