Republican Political Scandals List

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 that he promised would go towards building a wall on the southern 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

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

Refused to report a 17-year-old victim's credible allegations against her stepfather who had been raping and sexually assaulting her since she was only 5 years old in violation of state law and threatened to charge her with making false claims instead

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

Accepted at least $10k in cash stuffed in an envelope and $2,350 worth of checks from a business executive turned government informant he promised to make tax counsel for the county and award government contracts to

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

Used a government-issued credit card for personal expenses including gasoline, claimed mileage for trips that he used a government-owned vehicle for over a yearslong period, pressured a witness to lie to federal investigators and lied to investigators himself

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

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

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

Funneled $750k from a taxpayer-funded account that was supposed to feed inmates in the county jail he oversaw to pay for a $740k home that he likely would have never been able to afford on his yearly salary alone

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

Filled out and submitted his ex-wife's main-in ballot for the 2016 election without her knowledge or consent which she only found out about after she attempted to vote and was informed that she already had

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 while also being married 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

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