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Comparing presidential administrations by arrests and convictions: A warning for Trump appointees

By RoyalScribe
Wednesday Jan 11, 2017 · 2:16 PM CST

In May 2015, conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks mentioned on PBS’s Newshour that the Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/05/31/david_brooks_obama_amazingly_scandal_free_administration_chosen_people_scandal_free.html

“President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him. He’s chosen people who have been pretty scandal-free.”

As Obama’s administration winds to a close, that remains true. Not one criminal indictment for anyone in the Obama administration over the entire eight years of his tenure. In fact, it is the only Presidential administration since Watergate to end with zero criminal indictments.

The GOP leadership in the Senate is trying to ram through as many as Trump’s controversial nominees as quickly as possible. Most of them have not yet completed FBI security clearance checks or ethics reviews by the United States Office of Government Ethics, something that OGE Director Walter M. Shaub, Jr. has said in a letter has never happened in the four decades since the OGE was established.

This actually puts Trump’s nominees at personal considerable risk. The OGE serves to protect them from potential violations of ethics laws. An ethical review before Senate confirmation allows them to address potential ethical conflicts by, for example, divesting themselves of their stock holdings or even withdrawing their nomination. But if an ethical violation is discovered after confirmation, it could result in criminal indictments and potential jail sentences for those individuals.

If Obama’s administration is considered to be the least scandal-ridden, it made me wonder which administrations in recent history were the most scandal-ridden?

Comparing scandals by administration

[...] See link for details with charts

Comparing scandals by party

[...]

A warning to the Trump administration

[...]

Criminal actions included in this data

This list was compiled from Wikipedia’s List of Federal Political Scandals in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_scandals_in_the_United_States
I did not research each individual case, so the numbers of those who served prison sentences may be an undercount if it was not specifically noted on Wikipedia’s list.

President Barack Obama’s Administration

No appointed officials have faced criminal prosecution.

President George W. Bush’s Administration

Felipe Sixto—Office: Special Assistant for Intergovernmental Affairs as well as Duty Director at the Office of Public Liaison. Crime: Misuse of grant money from the U.S. Agency for International Development from before he took office. Result: conviction and imprisonment
Scott Bloch—Office: head the United States Office of Special Counsel. Crime: pleaded guilty to criminal contempt of Congress for withholding information from a congressional investigation. Result: conviction and imprisonment
Lewis “Scooter” Libby—Office: Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Crime: perjury and obstruction of justice in the Valerie Plame case. Sentence: imprisonment (commuted by George W. Bush)
John Korsmo—Office: chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board. Crime: pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Darleen A. Druyun—Office: Principal Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force. Crime: pleaded guilty to inflating the price of contracts to favor her future employer, Boeing. Result: convicted and imprisoned
David Safavian—Office: General Services Administration Chief of Staff. Crime: found guilty of blocking justice and lying in the Jack Abramoff Scandal. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Roger Stillwell—Office: Staff in the Department of the Interior. Crime: Pleaded guilty to participating in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Result: convicted (imprisonment suspended)
J. Steven Griles—Office: Deputy to the Secretary of the Interior. Crime: pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff Scandal. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Italia Federici—Office: staff to the Secretary of the Interior, and President of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Crime: pled guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of justice. Resulted: convicted but not imprisoned
Jared Carpenter—Office: Vice-President of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. Crime: pled guilty to income tax evasion. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Mark Zachares—Office: staff in the Department of Labor. Crime: bribed by Abramoff and guilty of conspiracy to defraud. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Robert E. Coughlin—Office: Deputy Chief of Staff, Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Crime: pleaded guilty to conflict of interest after accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Kyle Foggo—Office: Executive director of the CIA. Crime: was convicted of honest services fraud in the awarding of government contracts. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Claude Allen—Office: Advisor on Domestic Policy. Crime: series of felony thefts in retail stores. Result: convicted by not imprisoned
Lester Crawford—Office: Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Crime: pleaded guilty to conflict of interest. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Bernard Kerik—Office: nominated to be Secretary of Homeland Security but confirmation derailed. Crime: employing an undocumented nanny two and other improprieties, and later two counts of tax fraud and five counts of lying to the federal government. Result: convicted and imprisoned

President Bill Clinton’s Administration

Mike Espy—Office: Secretary of Agriculture: Crime: indicted on 30 counts of receiving improper gifts. Result: found innocent of all charges
Ronald Blackley—Office: Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. Crime: perjury. Result: Convicted and imprisoned

President George H. W. Bush’s Administration

Catalina Vasquez Villalpando—Office: Treasurer of the United States. Crime: pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and tax evasion. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Iran-Contra Affair pardons—President George H. W. Bush granted clemency to five convicted government officials from the Reagan Administration as well as to Caspar Weinberger, whose trial had not yet begun. This action prevented any further investigation into the matter, potentially protecting Bush from being personally implicated. (Results tallied under the Reagan administration.)

President Ronald Reagan’s Administration

Melvyn Paisley—Office: Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Crime: pleaded guilty to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Result: convicted and imprisoned
James E. Gaines—Office: Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Crime: accepting an illegal gratuity, and theft and conversion of government property. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Victor D. Cohen—Office: Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. Crime: pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and conspiring to defraud the government, the 50th conviction obtained under the Operation Ill Wind probe. Result: convicted and imprisoned
James G. Watt—Office: Secretary of Interior. Crime: charged with 25 counts of perjury and obstruction of justice. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Deborah Gore Dean—Office: Executive Assistant to Samuel Pierce, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development. Crime: 12 counts of perjury, conspiracy, bribery. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Philip D. Winn—Office: Assistant Secretary of HUD. Crime: pleaded guilty to bribery. Result: convicted by not imprisoned
Thomas Demery—Office: Assistant Secretary of HUD. Crime: pleaded guilty to bribery and obstruction. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Joseph A. Strauss—Office: Special Assistant to the Secretary of HUD. Crime: convicted of accepting payments to favor Puerto Rican land developers. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Silvio D. DeBartolomeis—Office: Assistant Secretary of HUD. Crime: convicted of perjury and bribery. Result: convicted but not imprisoned.
Lyn Nofziger—Office: White House Press Secretary. Crime: indicted for lobbying. Result: convicted, but conviction overturned on appeal.
Caspar Weinberger—Office: Secretary of Defense. Crime: indicted on two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice relating to the Iran-Contra Affair. Result: indicted by pardoned by George H. W. Bush before trial
Robert C. McFarlane—Office: National Security Adviser. Crime: convicted of withholding evidence in Iran-Contra Affair. Result: convicted but not imprisoned, later pardoned by George H. W. Bush
Elliott Abrams—Office: Assistant Secretary of State. Crime: convicted of withholding evidence in the Iran-Contra Affair. Result: convicted but not imprisoned, later pardoned by George H. W. Bush
Alan D. Fiers—Office: Chief of the CIA’s Central American Task Force. Crime: convicted of withholding evidence. Result: convicted but not imprisoned, later pardoned by George H. W. Bush
Clair George—Office: Chief of Covert Ops-CIA. Crime: convicted on 2 charges of perjury relating to the Iran-Contra Affair. Result: convicted but pardoned by George H. W. Bush before sentencing
Oliver North—Office: National Security Council staff member. Crime: convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity, obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents. Result: conviction overturned because it conflicted with the immunity he had been granted in exchange for congressional testimony
John Poindexter—Office: National Security Advisor. Crime: convicted of 5 counts of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury, defrauding the government, and the alteration and destruction of evidence. Result: conviction overurned by the Supreme Court
Duane Clarridge—Office: CIA senior official. Crime: indicted on 7 counts of perjury and false statements relating to the Iran-Contra Affair. Result: indicted but pardoned before trial by George H. W. Bush
Richard V. Secord—Office: major general in the Air Force. Crime: pleaded guilty for organizing the Iran arms sales and Contra aid in the Iran-Contra Affair. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Thomas G. Clines—Office: intelligence official. Crime: convicted on four income tax counts, including underreporting of income to the IRS and lying about not having foreign accounts. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Joseph F. Fernandez—Office: CIA Station Chief of Costa Rica. Crime: Indicted on five counts in 1988. Result: case dismissed when Attorney General Dick Thornburgh refused to declassify information needed for his defense in 1990.
Michael Deaver—Office: Deputy Chief of Staff. Crime: pleaded guilty to perjury related to lobbying activities. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Anne Gorsuch Burford—Head of the EPA. Crime: Cut the EPA staff by 22 percent and refused to turn over documents relating to the Sewergate Scandal to Congress. Result: convicted of contempt but not imprisoned
Rita Lavelle—Office: an EPA Administrator. Crime: misused “superfund” monies and was convicted of perjury. Result: convicted and imprisoned
Melvyn R. Paisley—Office: Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Crime: participating in the Operation Ill Wind defense procurement scandal. Result: convicted and imprisoned
J. Lynn Helms—Office: head of the Federal Aviation Administration. Crime: plea bargained charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission with diverting $1.2 million from an issue of tax-exempt municipal bonds to his own personal use. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Peter Voss—Office: US Postal Service Board of Governors. Crime: theft and accepting payoffs. Result: convicted and imprisoned

President Jimmy Carter’s Administration

Bert Lance—Director of OMB. Crime: indicted for misuse of funds during the sale of a Georgia bank to BCCI. Result: acquitted of all nine counts

President Gerald Ford’s Administration

Earl Butz—Office: Secretary of Agriculture. Crime: charged with tax evasion for failing to report more than $148,000 in 1978. Result: convicted and imprisoned

President Richard Nixon’s Administration

Spiro Agnew—Office: Vice President. Crime: convicted of tax fraud stemming from bribery charges, accepting a plea bargain that allowed for no prison time in exchange for his resignation. Result: convicted but not imprisoned

Watergate—Burglary and “bugging” of the Democratic Party National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and subsequent cover up. Crime: 69 government officials were charged and 48 convicted or pleaded guilty. Result: 48 convictions, at least 13 prison sentences.
- John N. Mitchell—Office: Attorney General. Crime: convicted of perjury. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Richard Kleindienst—Office: Attorney General. Crime: convicted of “refusing to answer questions.” Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Jeb Stuart Magruder—Office: Head of Committee to Re-elect the President. Crime: pleaded guilty to 1 count of conspiracy. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Frederick C. LaRue—Office: Advisor to Attorney General John Mitchell. Crime: convicted of obstruction of justice. Result: convicted and imprisoned.
- H. R. Haldeman—Office: Chief of Staff for Nixon. Crime: convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Result: Convicted and imprisoned
- John Ehrlichman—Office: Counsel to Nixon. Crime: convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Result: Convicted and imprisoned
- Egil Krogh—Office: aide to John Ehrlichman. Crime: crimes relating to Watergate. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- John W. Dean III—Office: counsel to Nixon. Crime: convicted of obstruction of justice. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Dwight L. Chapin—Office: deputy assistant to Nixon. Crime: convicted of perjury. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Herbert W. Kalmbach—Office: personal attorney to Nixon. Crime: convicted of illegal campaigning. Result: convicted and imprisoned
[b - ]Charles W. Colson—Office: special counsel to Nixon. Crime: convicted of obstruction of justice. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- Herbert L. Porter—Office: aide to the Committee to Re-elect the President. Crime: convicted of perjury. Result: convicted and imprisoned
- G. Gordon Liddy—Office: Special Investigations Group. Crime: convicted of burglary. Result: convicted and imprisoned

Maurice Stans—Office: Secretary of Commerce. Crime: pleaded guilty to 3 counts of violating the reporting sections of the FEC Act and 2 counts of accepting illegal campaign contributions. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Harry Shuler Dent—Office: Presidential Counsel and Strategist Harry Shuler Dent. Crime: pleaded guilty to violations of Federal election law. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Jack A. Gleason—Office: White House Aide. Crime: pleaded guilty to violations of Federal election law concerning an illegal fund-raising operation run by the White House. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Richard Helms—Office: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Crime: pleaded no contest to misleading Congress concerning assassination attempts in Cuba, anti-government activities in Chile and the illegal surveillance of journalists in the US. Result: convicted but not imprisoned
Donald Segretti—Office: Political Operative for the Committee to Re-Elect the President. Crime: ran a “ratfucking” campaign of dirty tricks for Nixon, pleaded guilty to distributing illegal (forged) campaign literature. Result: convicted and imprisoned.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/11/1619079/-Comparing-Presidential-Administrations-by-Arrests-and-Convictions-A-Warning-for-Trump-Appointees