Working for Donald Trump Has Created Legal Trouble for Many: In total, 40 government officials – including many top Nixon administration officials – were indicted or jailed for their role in the Watergate scandal that also resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Nearly 30 others were also indicted on charges related to the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C., Watergate Office Building.
It wasn’t actually the biggest political scandal in the history of the United States, however. There had been massive corruption during President Ulysses S. Grant’s administration that involved whiskey taxes, bribery, and kickbacks that ended with 110 convictions including John J. McDonald, the supervisor of the Internal Revenue Service.
Work For Donald Trump, Go To Jail?
Many in the “orbit” of former President Donald Trump have also faced indictments while some have already been convicted.
These have included onetime advisor Steve Bannon, who was found guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a demand to appear before a committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the United States Capitol Building.
Bannon now faces New York State money laundering and conspiracy charges.
Others have included Allen Weisselberg, who was sentenced to five months in prison in New York earlier this year for his role in a wide-ranging tax fraud case. After pleading guilty last year, he served as a star witness in a fraud trial against the Trump Organization.
Longtime adviser Roger Stone was convicted in 2019 for lying under oath to U.S. lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The former president commuted his sentence and later pardoned Stone.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” was sentenced to a three-year prison term after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to making “hush money” payments to two women, including adult film actress Stormy Daniels, to cover up alleged affairs involving the former president. Cohen also pleaded guilty that same year to lying to Congress about negotiations involving a proposed Trump Tower in Moscow. That project never actually materialized.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman was also found guilty of fraud and pleaded guilty to money laundering and lobbying violations. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison but was pardoned in December 2020.
His business partner, Rick Gates, also pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy and lying to investigators during the Russia campaign probe and subsequently served 45 days in jail
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was named Trump’s national security adviser, was forced to resign less than a month later in 2017, and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador to the United States just weeks before Donald Trump took office. He was pardoned in 2020.
In addition, more than 950 people have been arrested and charged in connection with January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. To date, roughly 500 have pleaded guilty while 52 were found guilty at trial. Nearly 400 of those have been sentenced, ranging from home detention to more than seven years in prison, Reuters reported.
Leaders of the extreme right-wing group the Proud Boys are currently on trial.
Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
