Republican Abuse of Power Scandals List

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

Refused to disclose which company he held as much as $25 million worth of stocks in on his legally mandated disclosure forms which makes it impossible for an average taxpayer to ever know if he favored this unknown company in his rulings

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

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

Helped Donald Trump avoid any accountability by asserting federal jurisdiction and ordering Manhattan DA CY Vance to "stand down" in his investigation into Donald Trump's secret payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the months before the 2016 Presidential election in a blatant attempt to prevent the damning details about Trump from becoming public

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

Spent over $2 million in taxpayer dollars investigating ludicrous claims of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential election and quietly closed the investigation after failing to find any credible instances of fraud

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

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

Unsuccessfully tried to coax a 20-year-old female he illegally provided alcohol to into giving him sexual favors if she wanted to avoid an underage drinking ticket after he got caught with her in a bar and had to save face because he was a police officer

Threatened to plant illegal contraband in his 19-year-old lady friend's car if she ever told anyone about their sexual escapades that sometimes took place while he was on duty at police headquarters

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

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 a $24,000 bribe in exchange for encouraging fellow state lawmakers to contract with a fake consulting company the state speaker of the house 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

Pocketed at least $6k to facilitate a bribe between the owner of a nursing home and a judge with an active case that involved the nursing home before his court

Accepted an illegal $24k campaign donation from the owner of a nursing home with an active case before his court and tried to obfuscate its origins by teaming with a coconspirator and former Republican state senator to act as an intermediary and then one day later drastically reduced the amount the nursing home was ordered to pay a family for gross negligence from $5.2 million to $1 million

Swerved in and out of his lane while driving 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

Accepted $13,000 from a trucking company in exchange for awarding them over $1 million in city contracts

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

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

Verbally accosted a police officer who issued him a written warning for driving 88 mph in a 55-mph zone and then tried to get out of trouble by claiming legislative immunity even though the state legislature had adjourned nearly a month before he was pulled over and went so far as threatening to call the state AG and reporting the officer for simply doing his job

Used $30,000 in county funds to repair the private road he lived on that wasn't supposed to be maintained by the county

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

Improperly charged taxpayers $3,200 to reimburse him for a personal trip to visit Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. without providing any receipts to prove that he did county business during the trip

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

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

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

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

Illegally allowed police deputies she oversaw to stay "on the clock" and also accrue vacation time during supposed volunteer work done outside their normal work hours

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

Made police deputies and other staff members perform non-work services for his personal businesses, at his private property and for his political campaign during their regular work hours

Invited a female public safety officer up to his hotel room under false pretenses and made it clear to her how attracted he was to her while also being married and when she rose to leave the room he vaguely threatened her by reminding her how much he has helped her professionally throughout her career and then secretly paid her an undisclosed amount of money and forced her to sign a nondisclosure agreement after she filed a complaint against him

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”

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

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

Coerced a subordinate into having a sexual relationship with him by threatening to manipulate her salary or fire her outright if she didn't agree

Spent taxpayer money on non-official lodging expenses when he attended a conference at beach resort

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

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

Weaved in and out of his lane while driving almost 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, smelled of alcohol when police pulled him over and resisted arrest and then called multiple state house colleagues from jail where he threatened to use his position as an elected official to retaliate against the police department for his arrest

Engaged in an extramarital affair with fellow state representative Cindy Gamrat and then concocted a wild story that alleged he solicited a male prostitute to keep their affair from becoming public which he then lied about under oath to a state House committee investigating whether he used state resources to conceal the affair

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

Conspired with at least three doctors to defraud Medicare and enrich himself with taxpayer dollars by paying them kickbacks in exchange for recommending their patients suffering with chronic pain to his pain management company

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

Received $60 million dollars to illegally lobby on behalf of pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians as an unregistered foreign agent of which he used a portion to pay former European politicians known as the Hapsburg Group to influence U.S. policy and then stashed the vast majority of the money in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying his taxes