The more news I read regarding this issue, the less faith I have in the future.
At the risk of seeming a conspiracy theorist, which I'm not, I was thinking about past administrations. There has always been at least a few "scandals" that have made headlines since, well, JFK, and I'm certain well before. This is a loooooooong list, so I expect "TL;DR" posts, so skip to the last paragraph for my point.
Reagan:
- Iran/Contra Affair
- "Just Say No"
- Keating 5
- Casper Weinberg
- National Security Advisor Robert C. McFarlane, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors and was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours of community service and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine. He was also pardoned by Bush.
- Alan D. Fiers was the Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Central American Task Force. He pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding information from Congress and was sentenced to one year of probation and one hundred hours of community service. He was also pardoned by Bush
- Richard R. Miller - Partner with Oliver North in IBC, an Office of Public Diplomacy front group, convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States
- Clair George was Chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Division of Covert Operations under President Reagan. George was convicted of lying to two congressional committees in 1986. He was pardoned by Bush.
- Richard Secord was indicted on nine felony counts of lying to Congress and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying to Congress
-Department of Housing and Urban Development grant rigging
and it goes on...
G.H.W.B.
- "No New Taxes"
- The Panama Deception
- George H. W. Bush (R) President. during his election campaign, Bush denied any knowledge of the Iran Contra Affair by saying he was "out of the loop." But his own diaries of that time stated "I'm one of the few people that know fully the details ..." He repeatedly refused to disclose this to investigators and won the election.
- Iran-Contra Affair pardons. On December 24, 1992, George H. W. Bush (R) granted clemency to five convicted government officials and Caspar Weinberger, whose trial had not yet begun. This action prevented any further investigation into the matter
- Clarence Thomas
- David Durenberger Senator (R-MN) denounced by Senate for unethical financial transactions and then disbarred (1990). He pled guilty to misuse of public funds and given one year probation (1995)
Surprisingly not much under his four year term.
Clinton:
- Webster Hubbell Associate Attorney General, pled guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion while in private practice
- Ronald Blackley, Chief of Staff to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, was sentenced to 27 months for perjury. Secretary Espy was found innocent on all counts.
- Bill Clinton President (D) Impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying under oath about sexual relations with intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office for the rest of his term. Clinton subsequently was cited for contempt of court and agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license (1998).[129] On October 1, 2001, Bill Clinton was barred from practicing law before the Supreme Court of the United States (2001)
- "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - in his defense, the Republicans (Ken Starr) began a witch hunt for gay's in the military. Forcing Clinton's hand to choose to either allow women and men to be dishonorably discharged or serve with questions and discussions regarding sexual orientation be banned. The Republican controlled Congress in 1994 agreed to those terms, although Clinton later admitted regret in not pushing it further.
- Ronald Blackley, Chief of Staff to Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, was sentenced to 27 months for perjury. Secretary Espy was found innocent on all counts.
- Henry Cisneros Secretary of Housing. Resigned and plead guilty (1999) to a misdemeanor charge of lying to the FBI about the amount of money he paid his former mistress, Linda Medlar while he was mayor of San Antonio, Texas. He was fined $10,000 (1999)
G.W.B.:
Where to begin, there's too much. I'll pick the most known and leave the rest for those to read.
- "Lawyergate" Or the Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy refers to President Bush firing, without explanation, eleven Republican federal prosecutors whom he himself had appointed. It is alleged they were fired for prosecuting Republicans and not prosecuting Democrats. When Congressional hearings were called, a number of senior Justice Department officials cited executive privilege and refused to testify under oath and instead resigned, including:
Michael A. Battle Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys in the Justice Department.
- Bradley Schlozman Director of Executive Office of US Attorneys who replaced Battle
- Michael Elston Chief of Staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
- Paul McNulty Deputy Attorney General to William Mercer
- William W. Mercer Associate Attorney General to Alberto Gonzales
- Kyle Sampson Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
- Alberto Gonzales Attorney General of the United States
- Monica Goodling Liaison between President Bush and the Justice Department
- Joshua Bolten Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush was found in Contempt of Congress
- Sara M. Taylor Aide to Presidential Advisor Karl Rove
- Karl Rove Advisor to President Bush
- Harriet Miers Legal Counsel to President Bush, was found in Contempt of Congress
- Bush White House e-mail controversy
During the Lawyergate investigation it was discovered that the Bush administration used Republican National Committee (RNC) web servers for millions of emails which were then destroyed, lost or deleted in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act and the Hatch Act. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Andrew Card, Sara Taylor and Scott Jennings all used RNC webservers for the majority of their emails. Of 88 officials, no emails at all were discovered for 51 of them. As many as 5 million e-mails requested by Congressional investigators of other Bush administration scandals were therefore unavailable, lost, or deleted.
- Jack Abramoff Scandal in which 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.
- Kyle Foggo Executive director of the CIA was convicted of honest services fraud in the awarding of a government contract and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison at Pine Knot, Kentucky. On September 29, 2008, Foggo pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment, admitting that while he was the CIA executive director, he acted to steer a CIA contract to the firm of his lifelong friend, Brent R. Wilkes.
- Julie MacDonald Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior, resigned May 1, 2007, after giving government documents to developers
- John Yoo An attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel inside the Justice Department who, working closely with vice president Dick Cheney and The Bush Six, wrote memos stating the right of the president to –
- suspend sections of the ABM Treaty without informing Congress
- bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act allowing warrentless wiretapping of US Citizens within the United States by the National Security Agency.
- state that the First Amendment and Fourth Amendments and the Takings Clause do not apply to the president in time of war as defined in the USA PATRIOT Act
- allow Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture) because provisions of the War Crimes Act, the Third Geneva Convention, and the Torture convention do not apply
- Timothy Goeglein Special Assistant to President Bush resigned when it was discovered that more than 20 of his columns had been plagiarized from an Indiana newspaper.
- Lewis Libby Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney (R). 'Scooter' was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the 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 (R) on July 1, 2007. The felony remains on Libby's record though the jail time and fine were commuted.
- Karl Rove Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush was investigated by the Office of Special Counsel for "improper political influence over government decision-making", as well as for his involvement in several other scandals such as Lawyergate, Bush White House e-mail controversy and Plame affair. He resigned in April 2007.
- Richard J. Griffin Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security appointed by George W. Bush who made key decisions regarding the department's oversight of private security contractor Blackwater USA, resigned in November 2007, after a critical review by the House Oversight Committee found that his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors during the Blackwater Baghdad shootings protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq.
- Howard Krongard, Republican contributor was appointed Inspector General of the US State Department by President George W. Bush in 2005. After he was accused by the House Oversight Committee of improperly interfering with investigations into private security contractor Blackwater USA, concerning the Blackwater Baghdad shootings. Krongard resigned in December 2007.
- Bush administration payment of columnists with federal funds to say nice things about Republican policies. Illegal payments were made to journalists Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus (2004–2005)
- Bernard Kerik nomination in 2004 as Secretary of Homeland Security was derailed by past employment of an illegal alien as a nanny, and other improprieties. On Nov 4, 2009, he pled guilty to two counts of tax fraud and five counts of lying to the federal government and was sentenced to four years in prison.
- Plame affair (2004), in which CIA agent Valerie Plame's name was supposedly leaked by Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State, to the press in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the reports used by George W. Bush to legitimize the Iraq war. Armitage admitted he was the leak but no wrongdoing was found.
- Thomas A. Scully, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), withheld information from Congress about the projected cost of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, and allegedly threatened to fire Medicare's chief actuary, Richard Foster, if Foster provided the data to Congress. (2003) Scully resigned on December 16, 2003.
- NSA warrantless surveillance – Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, President George W. Bush (R) implemented a secret program by the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on domestic telephone calls by American citizens without warrants, thus by-passing the FISA court which must approve all such actions. (2002) In 2010, Federal Judge Vaughn Walker ruled this practice to be illegal.
- "The Patriot Act" - Allowing the government to access private information on citizens in order to secure information on possible terrorist attacks after 9/11, the elimination of "Due Process"/the right to detain anyone for 48 hours.
- FEMA - governments severe inability in responding to thousands in New Orleans after the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Many under the GWM administration, such as head of FEMA Brown, were accused of improper response as well as mishandling funds in projects in protecting New Orleans from further devastations. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heavily criticized for spending a week in NYC spending thousands of dollars on shoes, clothing, fine dining and attending broadway shows, was booed by other attendees before a "Spamalot" production, resulting in Rice leaving for New Orleans.
Dozens more.
Obama:
- PRISM - Verizon wiretapping scandal reported first by British news report Glen Greenwalt (notorious anti-American reporter and accused of being "the worst possible person to begin this debate" by many) of "The Guardian", shedding light on many corporations working under the GWB and Obama administration under extensions of the GWB "Patriot Act" and renewal under the Obama Administration for wiretapping millions of American's phone and internet usage. Privacy in question for American's and whether it is outside the scope of "The War on Terror". Data mining claimed to be "less intrusive than airport security and worth it if it prevents future terrorists attacks". Scandal currently revealing more information at this time.
- Terence Flynn an appointee of Barack Obama to the National Labor Relations Board resigned in May 2012 after being accused of serious ethical violations by leaking information to the National Association of Manufacturers.
- Martha N. Johnson head of the General Services Administration fired two top GSA officials and then resigned herself after it was revealed that $822,000 had been spent in Las Vegas on a four-day training conference for 300 GSA employees. (2010).
- IRS Scandal - admitted to inappropriate investigation of conservative political groups associated with the Tea Party. President Obama demanded and accepted the resignation of the Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven T. Miller. Obama labeled the IRS’s actions “inexcusable.” Joseph Grant, commissioner of the agency's Tax-exempt and Government entities division, resigned on May 16.
- John Ensign (R-NV) resigned his Senate seat on May 3, 2011, before the Senate Ethics Committee could examine possible fiscal violations in connection with his extramarital affair with Cynthia Hampton. In May 2012, aide Doug Hampton (R) in what became the John Ensign scandal reached a plea deal with prosecutors, the details of which have not yet been released,
- Tom DeLay (R-TX) On November 24, 2010, a Texas jury convicted DeLay of money laundering connected to the Jack Abramoff scandal. (2010) On January 10, 2011, he was sentenced to three years in prison in Texas.
- G. Thomas Porteous Federal Judge for Eastern Louisiana was unanimously impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of bribery and perjury in March 2010. He was convicted by the US Senate and removed from office. He had been appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton. (2010).
- Samuel B. Kent Federal District Judge of Galveston, Texas, was sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying about sexually harassing two female employees. He had been appointed to office by Republican George H. W. Bush in 1990.
- Benghazi Scandal - Four American's killed in Benghazi, resulting in investigations on White House cover-up(s) before 2012 elections. Accusations against the Obama administration include lack of proper response, handling of information and more. Investigations currently underway.
Certainly more will come as the years pass. I highlighted some points that are relevant to the current discussion on recent revelations on the GWB and Obama administrations access to information on private citizens while further eliminating due process and civil liberties.
My point:
Every administration has experienced scandals that have undermined their ability to focus on their doctrines. Most of these "scandals" seem well timed, forced and/or questionable in nature. I wonder how these scandals are leaked. Are the administrations complicit for reasons unknown? Surely scandals as extreme as those reported were fully known by the administrations. How can these scandals get out while so much more is kept tightly controlled?
Is the public being purposely mislead through disinformation or scandals, causing focus over here while focus is taken off of actions elsewhere that would have greater implications than the reported scandals? Have the media and past/current administrations been working together, complicit in acts in order to keep other, more devastating policy/ies from making news?
