Tennessee Republican Scandals | Updated List of GOP Scandals in TN

Had an extramarital affair with a woman that resulted in the destruction of his marriage after he refused his wife's overture to reconcile while also publicly portraying himself as “a Christian, conservative family man” who adheres to traditional Christian values

Had extramarital affairs with one of his OBGYN patients, three coworkers and a pharmaceutical drug representative over a multiyear period

Helped facilitate two abortions for his ex-wife while also hypocritically portraying himself as a "consistent support of pro-life values" who repeatedly voted to pass anti-abortion legislation

Urged a woman he was having an affair with who also happened to be his OBGYN patient to get an abortion while having had expressed ardently anti-choice views in public

Falsely reported that he had loaned his campaign $320k and took an additional $700k line of credit on campaign finance forms he submitted in an apparent attempt to make potential challengers think that he had vastly more money in his campaign account than he actually did

Lied about being a "former member of law enforcement" who had a specialization in "international sex crimes" when in fact he was a volunteer reserve deputy who had zero involvement in sex trafficking cases and only lasted two years because he had made no progress in his field training and rarely showed up to required meetings

Lied about earning a second bachelors degree in economics from Middle Tennessee State while also publicly asserting "I'm an economist" on numerous occasions

Had sex with a married woman who was actively involved in a case in his courtroom and didn't recuse himself or disclose his behavior

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

Illegally transferred $91,000 from his political campaign and a nonprofit organization to an authorized federal campaign committee supporting his candidacy using money not subject to reporting regulations to help his 2016 bid for US Congress and then hid the transactions from the FEC

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

Crashed into another vehicle, attempted to flee from the police but tripped and fell to the ground, was found with urine-soaked pants and spectacularly failed a field sobriety test

Engaged in an extramarital affair with his 22-year-old intern after having hypocritically built a public persona as a pious man who often cited his firm belief in abstinence as reasons to oppose gay rights and funding for women's health services

Exposed his genitals to three underage girls in a hotel pool and hot tub

Grabbed a legislative staff's breasts and buttocks and physically prevented her from walking away from him and also inappropriately touched a second woman while visibly drunk -- drinking rum and colas to excess is apparently a common occurrence for him -- after attending five events hosted by lobbyists and businesses with free alcohol and food while he was married with three children

Told a college-aged legislative intern that he fantasized about her and a female friend "performing sexual acts" on each other and habitually sexually harassed her so badly that thousands of taxpayer dollars were used to help relocate her as she lived in the apartment building as him

Was videotaped stealing his GOP primary opponent's lawn signs in two separate locations in broad daylight after his rival campaign staked them out after many of their signs went missing presumably because numbnuts here stole them

Failed a field sobriety test and refused to submit to a breathalyzer test after being pulled over by police for a suspected DUI upon which they also found a loaded handgun lodged between the driver seat and center console

Crashed his car after which arriving officers observed signs of impairment including a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, slurred speech, dilated pupils, unsteadiness on his feet, responded with "lawyer" each of the many times he was asked to take a field sobriety test and resisted arrest by trying to pull away from officers handcuffing him

Illegally spent more than $100,000 in campaign funds to invest in a wealthy GOP donor's company

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

Had sex with a 20-year-old college student in his government office after drunkenly texting her that he'd like to see her "naked around midnight" and enticing her with a cooler full of beer and later had sex with her in his own home while also being married

Kissed a legislative assistant on the neck without her consent and sent suggestive text messages asking her for risqué pictures while also being married, which led to her quitting and finding a new job in the private sector to avoid interacting with him

Solicited erotic pictures from three unsuspecting female legislative staff over dozens of sexualized texts and social media messages while also being married

Sexually harassed 22 female legislative staff, interns, lobbyists and others over a three-year period which led to the Tennessee House overwhelmingly voting to remove him from office

Made "quite a display" of putting his hand in his pocket to accentuate his penis as he offered an unwrapped breath mint to a female lobbyist who merely asked for a piece of candy from a jar on his desk which led her to give him the nickname "Pants Candy"

Was accused of having an extramarital affair with a former state representative by the Lieutenant Governor

Illegally attempted to get an Adderall prescription by altering the refill date without permission from his doctor

Inappropriately touched and kissed three underage girls on the high school basketball team he coached while also being married with young children

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

Stole a total of $728.61 worth of items from a local Target during seven visits over a 26-day period by not scanning some of the more expensive items in her cart at the self-checkout line

Pulled out his penis and began stroking himself in front of a nurse until he had an erection after asking her if a testosterone shot she just administered would "make him hard" and then asked her not to leave the room while he continued his lewd behavior

Purchased multiple DVDs and digital videos of "young nude boys" and downloaded numerous felony videos from a peer-to-peer website including one that depicted a young girl being raped in the woods by a man who was supposedly her father and shared many of them online with other individuals over a yearslong period

Possessed and distributed felony images of underage girls as an administrator of an online child pornography group