Final Thought

I learn a lot in this project. I learn that most of the scandal have to deal with money. Also the people that were involved are people in with power in the government and the think they wont get caught since they think they are above the law. When they get caught the people in the in these scandal they usually get impeach or they would resign. I hope i can do something like this again this was fun in finding the information and find out this about people that get involved in scandal that are in the government.

House banking scandal

Around 1992 there was a scandal call the "House Banking scandal. The House banking scandal was people in the House of Representative allowed members to overdraw their House checking accounts, but were not being penalized by the House Bank The scandal involved more than 450 people in the House of Representative, they didn't actually break any laws. Some members of House of Representive were were singled out by the House Ethics Committee for leaving their checking accounts overdrawn for at least eight months out of a sample of 39 months. The scandal was made public when Republican Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, along with 7 freshman Republicans also known as "The gang of seven" decide to make the scandal public because since most of the people in the scandal were Democrats they thought get impeach more than the Republicans that were involved in the scandal. 77 Representatives that were involved in the scandal resigned or were ousted in the 1994 election.

Here's a list of the 22 worst, as identified by the House Ethics Committee:
Tommy Robinson (Republican-Arkansas) 996 checks/16 months overdue
Robert Mrazek (Democrat-New York) 920/23
Robert Davis (Republican-Michigan) 878/13 ($350,000)
Doug Walgren (Democrat-Pennsylvania) 858/16
Charles Hatcher (Democrat-Georgia) 819/35 ($273,000)
Stephen Solarz (Democrat-New York) 743/30
Charles Hayes (Democrat-Illinois) 716/15
Ronald Coleman (Democrat-Texas) 673/23 ($275,848)
Carl C. Perkins (Democrat-Kentucky) 514/14
Bill Alexander (Democrat-Arkansas) 487/18
William Goodling (Republican-Pennsylvania) 430/9
Edolphus Towns (Democrat-New York) 408/18
Edward Feighan (Democrat-Ohio) 397/8
Harold Ford (Democrat-Tennessee) 388/31 ($552,447)
Mickey Edwards (Republican-Ohio) 386/13 ($54,000)
William Clay (Democrat-Missouri) 328/9
Tony Coelho (Democrat-California) 316/12
John Conyers (Democrat-Michigan) 273/9
Mary Rose Oakar (Democrat-Ohio) 213/18
Joseph Early (Democrat-Massachusetts) 124/13
Doug Bosco (Democrat-California) 124/13
Jim Bates (Democrat-California) 89/9

Here are the people that left congess after the public found out about the scandal:
Left Congress
Bill Alexander (Democrat-Arkansas)
Albert Bustamante (Democrat-Texas)
Robert W. Davis (Democrat-Michigan)
Edward F. Feighan (Democrat-Ohio)
Charles Hatcher (Democrat-Georgia)
Charles A. Hayes (Democrat-Illinois)
Carroll Hubbard, Jr. (Democrat-Kentucky)
Bill Lowery (Republican-California)
Nicholas Mavroules (Democrat-Massachusetts)
Mary Rose Oakar (Democrat-Ohio)
Carl C. Perkins (Democrat-Kentucky)
Gus Savage (Democrat-Illinois)
Lawrence J. Smith (Democrat-Florida)
Stephen J. Solarz (Democrat-New York

Index Source
Index Source 2

The Race-Track Scandal

Otto Kerner, Jr. was a Democratic governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968. Kerner soon later became judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on May 20, 1968 after he resigned as a governor. In 1968 in a routine audit of Kerner tax return revealed that he was getting income form a stock call "Chicago Company". In 1969 ,Marge Lindheimer Everett, manager of Arlington Park race tracks ammited that bribing Otto Kerner, to gain additional racing dates and turning Washington Park into a track, which would increase her income. The bribes was if Kerner get additional racing dates and turning Washington Park into a track she would give him 50 share in her stock the "Chicago Company". He then later was sue for bribery, extortion and income tax fraud. Goverment investor soon learned that Kener also was getting income of $22,400 in a 10 month period on stock in different Everett interests. Kerner has lose his case and he was convicted on 17 counts of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, and related charges. He was also sentenced to three years in federal prison and fined $50,000. He also resign as U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1974 after he lose his case. However Kerner was released early from prison when it was determined that he was suffering from terminal cancer.

Source Index

Source Index 2

Watergate scandal part 2

Senate committee has televised the investigation of members of the president Nixon White house staff and his case vs. the united state. The Watergate tape was a collection of recordings of conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and several White House staff in February 1971. In addition to the line-taps placed on the telephones, small lavaliere microphones was installed at various locations around the rooms of the Watergate.

The tape was first discovered by Senate Committee staff member, Donald Sanders, on July 13, 1973 in an interview with White House Aide Alexander Butterfield. Three day after he found the tapes he made it public during the televised testimony of Butterfield. In his testimony he said that there was a system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office. It was also determined that Nixon's private office in the Old Executive Office Building was also bugged, where most of Nixon meet were place. The Senate committee then learned that it was the president who was responaible for taped every conversation in the White House office. However Nixon refuses to use the tapes as evidence. Nixon prosecutor, Archibald Cox was hired to be Nixon prosecutor and he filed a subpoena to secure tapes Nixon had secretly taped in the Oval Office of the White House. This led to the Saturday Night Massacre.

When Nixon found out he was so angry that he wants to fire Cox for this, he told Attorney General Richardson and ordered him to fire the special prosecutor. However Richardson refuses and resigns in protest. So Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General Ruckelshaus to fire Cox; he also refused and resigned in protest. Nixon then contacted the Solicitor General, Robert Bork, and ordered him as acting head of the Justice Department to fire Cox. So Richardson and Ruckelshaus had both personally assured the congressional committee to overseeing this special prosecutor investigation that they would not interfere, however Bork had made no such assurance to the committee. Bork complied with Nixon's order and fired Cox. Congress then infuriated by the act, which was seen as Nixon was abuse his presidential power. In that followed day, there were numerous bill of impeachment against Nixon were introduce to the congress.

The Supreme Court soon ruled that due to the process of law is more important then executive privilege. Which Nixon use to argue when the Supreme Court ask to use the tapes as evidence. So Nixon the released the tapes July 30, 1974, which revealed that right after the break-in, Nixon tried to protect those who were responsible for the Watergate break-in. Since it was legal to cover up the crime, Nixon action would also be a crime. The court found him guilty of covering up the crime. Nixon resigns 10 days later. Nixon served as an example to subsequent presidents not to overstep the limits of their constitional power.

Source Index
Source Index 2

Watergate scandal

Watergate scandal is a series of political scandals that happen during the presidency of Richard Nixon that began when five men was arrested after breaking and entering into the Democratic National ommittee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington, D.C. On June 17, 1972, Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the locks on several doors in the complex. He called the police and within minutes, five men were arrested inside the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) office. The Five men were Virgilio González, Bernard Barker, James W. McCord, Jr., Eugenio Martínez and Frank Sturgis. On Stember 15 On September 15, a grand jury indicted them for conspiracy, burglary and violation of federal wiretapping laws. They later found out that their main taret were the offices of Larry O'Brien, the Chairman of the DNC.

During the second term of President Nixon the Watergate crisis broke out. In 1973, news reporters suggested that the break-in was planned by the staff of the White House and prehap even the president himself. The FBI began to investgate this, and two reporters from the Washington Post revealed that certain officials close to the president may have planned the break-in. On April 30, 1973, Nixon was forced to ask for the resignation of two of his most influential aides, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, both of whom were indicted and ultimately went to prison. Meanwhile, Nixon repeatedly stated that he had no previous knowledge of the break-in and had no attempted on covering it up.

Source Index
The tapes of the watergate, the case of United v. Nixon and the aftermath will be in a part of this blog.

Pentagon Papers

The Pentagon papers was popular name for a 7,000-page top-secret United States government report about the history of the Government's internal planning and policy concerning the Vietnam War. These documents became famous when an State Department officer Daniel Ellsberg gave these paper to the to his friend Neil Sheehan, a New York time reporter, which was later publist in 1971. The document revel a 47-volume, 7,000-page, top-secret Department of Defense history of the United States' politico-military involvement in the war in Vietnam, from 1945 to 1967. The Pentagon Papers revealed many things, among of them, that the US deliberately expanded its war with airstrikes against Laos, coastal raids of North Vietnam, and U.S. Marine Corps attacks — before President Lyndon B. Johnson informed the American public, though promising to not expand the war. The revelations widened the credibility gap between the U.S. government and its people, which hurted Nixon administration's war effort. Anthony Lewis a writer for the New York Time said that the press had a First Amendment right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy.Yet, President Nixon argued that Ellsberg and Russo were guilty of felony treason , because they had no authority to publish classified documents.

Another controversy that was in the Pentagon paper was that President Johnson sent combat troops to Vietnam by July 17, 1965, after pretending to consult his advisors on July 21–27, per the cable stating that Deput Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance informs McNamara that President had approved 34 Battalion Plan and will try to push through reserve call-up. In 1988, when that cable was declassified, it was revealed that: there was a continuing uncertainty as to Johnson's final decision, which would have to await Secretary McNamara's recommendation and the views of Congressional leaders, particularly the views of Senator Richard Russell.

When the governer found out they sue the New York Time on June 26,1971, the Supreme Court agreed to hear both cases, consolidating to the 'New York Times Co. v. United States'. On June 30, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court decided, that the injunctions were unconstitutional prio restraint and that the Government failed didnt have enough to proof that the injunction were unconstitutional prio restraint. The New York time won case on First Amendment free speech absolutists, others people felt that it was a mild legal victory of little protection for publishers against national security claims to prior restraint of publishing. The Pentagon paper was some of the reason why the people were mad at the Vietnam war.

Source Index
Source Index 2