Republican Abuse of Power Scandals List

Overruled D.C. police who wanted to charge MAGA Rep. Cory Mills [R-FL] with physically assaulting his 27-year-old paramour and refused to sign an arrest warrant they asked to execute against the Congressman

Nominated conspiracy theorist and far-right podcaster Dan Bongino to be second in command at the FBI despite his scant qualifications for the powerful job other than being a Trump sycophant since the early days of his political career

Rushed to give his close friend and former business associate $170k in taxpayer dollars for contract work by skipping the public bidding process that is required by state law

Accepted $25,000 from a Russian national who actively promotes pro-Russian propaganda for his participation in a film where he vowed to “shut down the FBI headquarters building and open it up as a museum to the ‘deep state’” mere months before Trump nominated him to take over as FBI Director

Ordered the Pentagon's inspector general to launch a politicized investigation into the "conduct" of retired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley despite their being no credible allegations of official or unofficial misconduct ever leveled against General Milley

Opened a sham investigation to harass apolitical career prosecutors who worked on Trump's criminal cases after baselessly firing them simply because they did their jobs

Pardoned Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio who organized and directed members of the Proud Boys militia while they stormed and ransacked the US Capitol on 1/6

Pardoned Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes who was convicted for leading a mob of far-right Oath Keepers as they ransacked the US Capitol and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power

Pardoned Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio who organized and directed members of the Proud Boys militia while they stormed and ransacked the US Capitol on 1/6

Pardoned online drug kingpin Ross Ulbricht who facilitated the sale of over $200 million worth of illegal drugs, weapons and other illicit services on the dark web through his online marketplace "Silk Road" less than 10 years into his double lifetime sentence

Illegally obtained $122,000 in COVID relief funds for two of her businesses by falsifying documents about their total revenues, number of employees and whether the businesses were legally incorporated to begin with

Illegally operated his private business out of the mayor's office where he utilized public resources and personnel to improperly obtain government permits that enriched him personally and then encouraged at least one witness to lie to investigators if they were questioned

Illegally received $5.5 million lobbying for a Venezuelan businessman who wanted to be removed from ICE's "Most Wanted" list and then formed fake shell companies using the names of a law firm and a government official without their knowledge which he used to create false invoices and conceal his money from tax authorities

Ginned up a phony investigation to smear Joe Biden during an election year with constant and easily disproved propaganda over relatively minor, rarely prosecuted offenses committed by his son Hunter that presumably led to the overturning of a no jail plea deal by a Republican prosecutor and Trump appointed judge

Blocked $37 million in desperately needed disaster aid that was set aside to help victims displaced by wildfires in Washington simply because he had political disagreements with the state's Democratic governor

Violated contractual obligations he signed with the US military by acquiescing to Russian President Vladimir Putin's demand that he deny satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to the Chinese leader during one of his many secret conversations he had with the Russian leader over a two-year period

Fraudulently spent $188,474 in COVID relief funds on three luxury sports cars and other expenses after he lied about his company's earnings by nearly 1M in order to increase his chances of getting more grant money

Commuted convicted fraudster Phillip Esformes' sentence after he had only served less than two years of his twenty-year sentence for a massive healthcare fraud following a public relations campaign his well-connected family waged with the Trump White House and after released criminally threatened his wife and another family member with verbal threats and by breaking glassware set on a nearby table

Clandestinely spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin as many as seven times after he left office, during which time he possessed highly classified national security documents he illegally took with him when he left the White House and realistically could have shared with Putin

Secretly gave Russian President Vladimir Putin extremely rare Covid-19 test machines for his personal use at a time they were desperately needed all throughout the United States possibly to curry favor with Putin or as a reward for his 2016 election interference that helped put him in office

Had an affair with a woman and then paid her $7400 for part-time work in his local taxpayer paid for district office that she never showed up for according to four co-workers and only stopped paying her after his fiancée found out

Used his local connections to get a taxpayer funded job in a local town village for his fiancée and a job with the local sanitation department for her son

Illegally pocketed at least $36,000 in government wages by falsifying time sheets for poll-workers who didn't show up to their assigned shift and diverted the money to her personal bank account over a yearslong period

Illegally pocketed at least $36,000 in government wages by falsifying time sheets for poll-workers who didn't show up to their assigned shift and diverted the money to her personal bank account over a yearslong period

Illegally pocketed at least $36,000 in government wages by falsifying time sheets for poll-workers who didn't show up to their assigned shift and diverted the money to her personal bank account over a yearslong period

Fraudulently received $30,120 in COVID unemployment benefits while he was still employed and concealed $54,700 in consulting fees he earned and "thousands of dollars in income" from the IRS when he filed his 2021 federal income taxes

Illegally pocketed at least $36,000 in government wages by falsifying time sheets for poll-workers who didn't show up to their assigned shift and diverted the money to her personal bank account over a yearslong period

Illegally pocketed at least $28,000 from hundreds of people who paid her roughly $150 each for her to select them as poll workers over a multiyear period

Allowed an unauthorized individual to make copies of voting machine hard drives and attend a voting machine software update intended only for credentialed election officials

Pushed a police officer who was attempting to handcuff his wife over a dispute with their neighbor and warned the officer that he'll "be sorry" if he arrested his "f*cking wife" because he was friends with the mayor and two of his children are police officers

Received free services from an auto shop in exchange for sending county vehicles to the shop when they needed work done on them

Pardoned an admittedly racist convicted murderer who made good on his online threats to confront and shoot protesters by killing an Air Force veteran peacefully participating in a protest one year into his 25-year sentence

Asked wealthy oil executives to spend $1 billion to elect him in 2024 and promised to throw out environmental regulations designed to combat global climate change on "Day 1" as a reward if he were to return to the White House

Declined to recuse himself from a Supreme Court case determining whether Donald Trump is immune from criminal charges stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election despite the fact that his wife Ginni was intimately involved in the scheme to prevent Biden from becoming President

Promised to pardon his personal aide and "body man" Walt Nauta if he was convicted of lying to the FBI about his knowledge of Trump's illegal retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago if he becomes President again

Remained closely tied to his namesake company which ended up raking in at least $7.8 million from 20 different foreign governments throughout his Presidency by having his sons run it instead of placing it in the hands of a neutral arbiter which violated decades of norms and traditions that were in place to prevent a President from profiting off the office

Masterminded a scheme to illegally conceal $2.1 million he earned in a three-month period for lobbying services he provided for the government of Qatar by creating an LLC with his coconspirator to hide the money from federal officials

Helped his coconspirator illegally conceal $2.1 million they earned lobbying for the government of Qatar by creating an LLC with to hide the money from tax authorities and then lied to federal officials twice after they confronted him

Spewed homophobic and racist taunts against police officers who pulled him over for swerving in and out of his lane and also failed a field sobriety test, refused to take a breathalyzer and threatened the officers by saying that he would "regret" arresting him because he knew the state AG and claimed he could falsely tell him that he was mistreated by the officers

Secretly sold up to $50,000 of Boeing shares mere days before a House committee he was on released a highly critical report about the company and then failed to disclose the sale for more than two months and only reported it after he won reelection in a race he won by a mere 333 votes

Pardoned a convicted drug smuggler who had connections with his son-in-law Jared Kushner's family after only serving two and a half years of his ten-year sentence and who was later arrested for assaulting his wife and father-in-law

Illegally obtained over $45,000 in Small Business Covid-Relief Funds out of $150,000 he applied for by claiming that dormant companies he owned with no employees actually had 6 employees and revenue of $800k and then lied to federal agents when they questioned him about it

Stole $9,657 in proceeds from an online auction of old government-owned vehicles

Secretly flew on a private plane to attend events hosted by a right-wing organization which frequently argued cases before the Supreme Court and failed to disclose it which George W. Bush appointed judge John E. Jones III characterized as taking his "breath away" and noted that it would have resulted in a "disciplinary hearing" for any lower court federal judge

Secretly accepted a golf trip without reporting it as required by law in which a major Republican businessman flew him on a private jet to play a round and stay overnight at the Augusta National Golf Club (the most exclusive in the country) and soon after his administration gave his business $92 million in COVID relief funds to fund a major highway project

Accepted over $150,000 in cash and gifts including premium NY Mets season tickets, a discounted beachfront apartment, a bespoke 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 of theirs

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 Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who filed criminal charges against Donald Trump and 18 others, presumably to deflect attention away from the many crimes Trump committed

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

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

Accepted cash bribes totaling $72,500 to circumvent concealed carry gun laws by giving people fake deputy credentials that allowed them to carry a concealed weapon in any state without a permit

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

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

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 "several" 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coordinated purchasing and distributing cocaine and methamphetamine with someone who was also a confidential government informant working with the DEA by connecting them with distribution networks in Arizona and California and having the drugs delivered to Pennsylvania through the mail multiple times over a sixteen-month period

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Used his stature as the second highest-ranking member of the state senate to push through legislation that he knew would have a direct positive impact on his wife's finances she otherwise would not have been able to pursue if the law weren't changed

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

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

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

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