Republican Political Scandals List

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

Accepted a $25,000 cash bribe and agreed to receive another $25,000 from a NY state senator once he followed through on a promise to use his position as Vice Chair of the Queens GOP to get him on the Republican primary ballot for NYC mayor

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

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

Accepted more than $15,000 in bribes in exchange for designating roughly $80,000 in taxpayer funds to a nonprofit entity

Accepted $20,500 in bribes for his role in orchestrating a $200k scheme to rig the 2013 Republican ballot for NYC mayor

Sold his home to a major Republican donor for 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

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

Operated his re-election campaign from his taxpayer-funded office in the state capitol and used government staff to help him raise money and do other campaign-related work

Illegally accepted $24,000 from a pharmaceutical company in exchange for giving them non-public information he had access to that helped the company financially

Accepted a $15,000 bribe with the expectation of getting an additional $15,000 soon after he helped rig the 2013 Republican ballot for NYC mayor but was caught before he could get started because he took the bribe from an undercover FBI agent

Stole $20k from taxpayers by giving himself and six others illegal bonuses as a reward for completing an educational program they never actually finished

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

Illegally kept his ex-wife on his taxpayer-funded health insurance plan after they divorced resulting in her improperly getting medical benefits she wasn't entitled to and over $7k worth of prescription drugs at taxpayer expense

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

Accepted $2,000 more than she legally was able to in campaign donations from an undercover agent posing as a business executive in exchange for expediting one of their development projects through the government certification process and didn't report the money in her election reports which state authorities assert is akin to stealing from her campaign

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

Struck his girlfriend and dragged her from his car on a freeway median during a violent roadside argument and then claimed legislative immunity to avoid arrest while police hauled his girlfriend to jail in her formal evening gown

Laundered $190k in corporate donations through Republican national political committees and his PAC as part of a broader scheme that illegally raised over $600k in corporate money funneled into state legislative races in violation of state election law

Illegally used campaign funds to pay for various personal expenses including gambling debts, membership fees in fishing clubs and carnival organizations and numerous other personal expenses for his family and then falsely reported to state officials that the expenses were for campaign-related activities

Accepted over $45k worth of trips to attend professional golf tournaments from a private developer and city employee in exchange for giving them favorable treatment with city contracts and then didn't file tax returns in an effort to evade having to pay taxes on his ill-gotten money

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 $6 million in state funds to build a private hangar for a major donor's jets while simultaneously securing a lucrative vice presidency for himself paid for by the very college receiving the misappropriated tax dollars

Embezzled $400k in insurance premiums from a company he owned and deposited it into his congressional campaign account and then tried to cover his tracks by transferring 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

Raked in at least $2.4 million in bribes in the form of cash, a home and a plethora of luxury gifts from defense contractors who he then awarded upwards of $40 billion worth of defense and intelligence contracts funded by the US taxpayer using his clout as a prominent member of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees

Accepted over $120k worth of lavish luxury resort stays and expensive golf trips paid for through his involvement in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal while trading political favors and legislative influence for the trips

Exploited his role as Majority Leader to push the agenda of Jack Abramoff and his clients including Native American tribes seeking to protect casino profits while his wife quietly accepted over $115k from firms tied to Abramoff, his political action committees pulled in donations funneled through Abramoff’s network and his nonprofit the US Family Network pocketed a $1m payment from Russian energy interests linked to Abramoff

Physically abused his paramour multiple times throughout their yearslong extramarital affair and then paid her $500k to settle a lawsuit she filed against him with the stipulation that she would get less if she went public

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

Sold highly classified national security and intelligence information to the Soviet Union and later Russia over a 22-year period including the identities of double agents who were executed as a result, details of US nuclear war defense plans, technical operations against the Soviets and FBI surveillance methods in exchange for more than $1.4m in cash and diamonds