Political scandals of the United States

This article provides an incomplete list of political scandals of the United States. This article is divided into three sections, Federal Scandals, Local Scandals and (political) Sex Scandals. Federal scandals are organized by Presidential term and then into scandals of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches. Members of both parties are listed under the term of the presiding president at the time the scandal took place. Local Scandals a... more

This article provides an incomplete list of political scandals of the United States. This article is divided into three sections, Federal Scandals, Local Scandals and (political) Sex Scandals. Federal scandals are organized by Presidential term and then into scandals of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches. Members of both parties are listed under the term of the presiding president at the time the scandal took place. Local Scandals are divided by date and state, and Sex Scandals are listed by date. There is no hard and fast rule defining scandals. Though the dictionary may define scandal as "loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety," in politics scandal should be kept separate from 'controversy,' which implies two differing points of view and 'unpopularity.' Many presidents make unpopular decisions. Neither of these are scandals. A good guideline is whether or not an action is, or appears to be, illegal. Since we... less