20 Outrageous Political Scandals from the Last 25 Years
Revelations that White House intern Monica Lewinsky had oral sex with Clinton in the Oval Office leading him to declare famously on TV on January 26, 1998, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." The scandal led to impeachment by the House for perjury, for lying about the affair under oath. He was acquitted in the Senate with 55 senators voting Not Guilty to 45 senators voting Guilty (falling 22 votes short of the two-thirds necessary to convict).
Most of the biographical information for all 20 politicians is from Wikipedia.
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Resigned his office after 29 women came forward with claims of sexual harassment, abuse, and assaults. His denials of any wrongdoing were eventually contradicted by his own diaries boasting of his sexual conquests. (1995)
Representative (R-GA) and leader of the Republican Revolution of 1994, resigned from the House after admitting in 1998 to having had an affair with his intern while he was married to his second wife, and at the same time, he was leading the impeachment of Bill Clinton for perjury regarding an affair with his intern Monica Lewinsky.
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A noted segregationist, he fathered a child, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, with a 15-year-old African American in 1925 who was employed by the Thurmond family.
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A newly married U.S. Representative, Weiner admitted to sending sexually suggestive photos of himself to several women through his Twitter account. He resigned from Congress on June 16, 2011, but kept sexting after his resignation.
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Elliot Spitzer, the former Democratic governor of New York, had patronized an elite escort service run by Emperors Club VIP. The New York Times broke the story on March 10, 2008. The ensuing scandal led to Spitzer's resignation as Governor on March 17.
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Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair with actor and film producer Rielle Hunter, which produced a child, seriously undercutting his 2008 presidential campaign.
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Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame Affair on March 6, 2007. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. The sentence was commuted by George W. Bush on July 1, 2007. The felony remains on Libby's record, though the jail time and fine were commuted.
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The powerful 18-term Chicago Democrat was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 18 months in prison, in 1995.
Blagojevich, former Democratic governor of Illinois, on June 27, 2011, was found guilty of 17 charges (including wire fraud, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to solicit bribes) and not guilty on one charge. The jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges. On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
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Livingston called for the resignation of Bill Clinton and when his own extramarital affairs were leaked, his wife urged him to resign and urged Clinton to do likewise. (1998)
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Vitter took over the House seat of former Congressman Robert Livingston, who resigned in 1999 following revelations of an extramarital affair. At the time, Vitter stated, "I think Livingston's stepping down makes a very powerful argument that Bill Clinton should resign as well...." Vitter’s name was then discovered in the address book of the DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey.
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A US Senator for 18 years, Craig was apprehended and arrested on June 11, 2007, with a charge of lewd conduct in a men's restroom at the International Airport in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He did plead guilty to the lesser charge of disorderly conduct, but changed his mind and tried to revoke the guilty plea. He announced his resignation three months later on September 1, 2007, but changed his mind again, although he did not seek re-election in 2008.
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Sandford, the former Governor of South Carolina, had an affair with an Argentine woman and disappeared for 6 days in June 2009 during which time no one—not his wife and not his staff could contact him. He was censured but never resigned. His wife divorced him.
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The House Majority Leader was reprimanded twice by the House Ethics Committee and his aides were indicted (2004–2005). Eventually DeLay himself was investigated in October 2005 in connection with the Abramoff scandal, but not indicted. DeLay resigned from the House June 9,2006. He was found to have illegally channeled funds for a Republican Majority to Republican state legislator campaigns. He was convicted of two counts of money laundering and conspiracy in 2010.
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Rangel failed to report $75,000 income from the rental of his villa in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and was forced to pay $11,000 in back taxes.
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The prominent lobbyist with close ties to Republican administration officials and legislators offered bribes as part of his lobbying efforts. Abramoff was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
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Stevens was convicted of seven counts of bribery and tax evasion October 27, 2008. He then lost reelection. Newly appointed US Attorney General Eric Holder dismissed the charges "in the interest of justice" stating that the Justice Department had illegally withheld evidence from defense counsel.
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A Democrat from Ohio, Traficant had a long history of indictments and scandals for racketeering and bribery in the early 1980s from which he was acquitted. He was later elected to Congress, and in 2002 Traficant was indicted on federal corruption charges for taking campaign funds for personal use. After a two-month federal trial, on April 11, 2002, he was convicted of 10 felony counts including bribery, racketeering and tax evasion.
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Jesse L. Jackson Jr. pled guilty to one felony count of fraud for using $750,000 of campaign money to buy personal items such as stuffed animals, elk heads and fur capes.
© Jason Reed / Reuters