Republicans Misusing Government Resources Scandals

Illegally put pressure on a government official to reassess their decision on a property appraisal she had an interest in

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 and was penalized by his peers with a lifetime ban from the state senate floor

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

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

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

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

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 Georgia prosecutor who Fanni Willis 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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”

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

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

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

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"

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

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