Sexual assault, illegal arms sales, and…speeding in a horse-drawn carriage? Presidents have
been accused of a wide variety of crimes over the course of the nation's history,
and we're here to break down some of the most egregious.
On December 18, 2019, Donald Trump became the third U.S. president to be impeached,
charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The impeachment alleged that,
in a phone call with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy,
Trump had threatened to withhold $400 million in military aid from Ukraine
until they had investigated Hunter Biden's activity in the Eastern European country.
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said during a news conference,
"The facts are uncontested. The president abused his power for his own political benefit
at the expense of our national security, by withholding military aid and a crucial Oval
Office meeting in exchange for an announcement for an investigation into his political rival."
The impeachment was decided along party lines. When the vote was conducted in February 2020,
every Democrat voted in favor of Trump's impeachment,
while all but one Republican — Senator Mitt Romney — voted
against it. As the Senate was controlled by the Republicans, Trump was acquitted.
"The president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust."
In early 2021, in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol,
Trump was impeached a second time for "incitement of insurrection." That January,
masses of his supporters had marched on the U.S. Capitol, as Congress met to formalize Joe Biden's
victory in the 2020 presidential election. Upon gaining entry, the mob vandalized, ransacked,
and stole from the building; seven people were killed in what seemed to be a coup attempt.
Beforehand, President Trump spoke at the Ellipse to a crowd of supporters, large elements of which
would attack the Capitol. Disputing the legitimacy of Biden's victory, Trump said among other things,
"We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
Consequently, Trump's speech was blamed for the ensuing chaos. Congressman Jaime Raskin said,
"If this is not a high crime and misdemeanor against the United States of America then nothing
is [...] President Trump must be convicted, for the safety and democracy of our people."
Even several Republicans concurred, voting in favor of impeachment. The final vote
was 57 in favor of conviction and just 43 against,
all Republicans. However, as impeachment requires a two thirds majority to pass,
Trump was again acquitted, allowing him to run for president in 2024.
Late on Thursday, March 30, 2023, the United States learned that
former President Donald J. Trump was going to be indicted. Five days later,
Trump appeared in New York state court in Manhattan, where he pleaded not guilty to
34 felony counts of falsifying business records. This marked the first time that a president had
been indicted in United States history, another in a long list of presidential firsts for Trump.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump, and described the
former president and his lawyers as participating in a "catch-and-kill" scheme to influence public
perception of him leading up to the 2016 election. These included making more than $300,000 in hush
payments to various people who claimed to have negative stories involving Trump and
sexual liaisons. As part of the scheme, Bragg alleged that Trump falsified various business
records, which included creating illegal shell corporations and fake invoices and ledger entries.
Importantly, in the indictment and Statement of Facts, Bragg also alleged that Trump falsified
the business records in order to conceal other crimes related to the 2016 election, which is
what upgraded the charges from misdemeanors to Class E felonies. The case is still ongoing.
In 2020, Tara Reade accused Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her 30 years
ago. Ms. Reade said that, while working as a staff assistant from 1992 to 1993,
Senator Biden forced her against a wall and put his hands under her shirt and skirt.
Biden's team categorically denied Reade's accusation,
and Biden personally addressed the matter on television, saying
"In the end, in every case, the truth is what matters. And in this case,
the truth is, the claims are false."
In 2023, Reade defected to Russia. But Reade's story was not the first accusation of sexually
inappropriate behavior against the 46th president. Numerous women have accused Biden of inappropriate
kissing, touching, and hugging. For example, Nevada Democrat politician Lucy Flores said
that Biden smelled her hair and kissed the back of her head, during a political rally in 2014.
Flores wrote that she was "embarrassed," "shocked," and "confused" by Biden's behavior,
adding that Biden had touched her in an intimate way that would only be acceptable from those close
to her. By the spring of 2020, well into Biden's campaign for president, The Cut reported that at
least eight women had accused the former vice president of inappropriate behavior.
In 2013, a United Nations report claimed that U.S. President Obama's drone strike
campaign in Pakistan and Yemen violated international law. Human Rights Watch
also criticized Obama's Yemen strikes, stating,
"Two of these attacks were in clear violation of international humanitarian
law — the laws of war — because they struck only civilians or used indiscriminate weapons."
Drone strikes were a crucial part of President Obama's counter-terrorism strategy. He ordered
the first strike just three days into his presidency, attacking a target in Pakistan
that reportedly killed 20 civilians. By Trump's inauguration in January 2017,
the Obama administration had ordered 542 strikes, killing 3,797 people,
324 of whom were civilians. In a facetious moment, Obama reportedly once told senior colleagues,
"Turns out I'm really good at killing people.
Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine."
But in a more serious moment, he spoke to Stephen Colbert about the drone strikes, saying,
"Each time we make this decision, we are engaged in the most profound act a government can take."
U.S. President George W. Bush was never impeached,
but his administration's invasion of Iraq caused many to accuse him of war crimes.
Counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke said in an interview with Democracy Now!,
"In my mind, at least, it's clear that some of the things they did were war crimes."
The Bush administration directed the invasion of Iraq in 2003,
which saw the United States and United Kingdom invade the Republic of Iraq,
and topple Saddam Hussein's dictatorship within a month. Yet, while the coalition
ended the leadership of an evil tyrant, it also operated in a highly dubious set of circumstances.
A White House press release on March 22, 2003, indicated that America's justification for war
was to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Yet, when Iraq was conquered, the coalition armies
failed to find any such weapons. Even after a $1 billion investigation involving 1,625 U.N. and
U.S. inspectors searching 1,700 sites, there were simply no weapons of mass destruction to be found.
"You know, when we first got in there and started looking around,
you didn't find anything, you get that kind of sinking feeling that, 'uh-oh.'"
In 2012, about 18 months after the last U.S. combat brigade left Iraq, the Kuala
Lumpur War Crimes Commission found George W. Bush, and seven members of his administration,
guilty of war crimes. Torture victims gave disturbing accounts at the trial,
explaining how they had suffered at the hands of U.S. soldiers and contractors,
which informed the court's decision to convict Bush and his colleagues as war criminals.
In January, 1998, the Drudge Report revealed a sexual affair between 23-year-old White
House intern Monica Lewinsky and the President of the United States,
Bill Clinton. Both Clinton and Lewinsky denied any relationship.
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky."
But what neither Lewinsky nor the public knew was that Linda Tripp,
her friend at the Pentagon, had recorded Lewinsky speaking of an affair with Clinton. In August,
Clinton became the first sitting president to testify before the Office of Independent Counsel,
as the subject of a grand jury investigation. He admitted to an "inappropriate" relationship,
but denied that he did anything to "lie, hide, or destroy evidence, or to take any unlawful action."
Consequently, the case was given to the House of Representatives, which impeached Clinton on
perjury and obstruction of justice, who became the second U.S. president ever impeached. The
five-week trial concluded on February 12, 1999, with Clinton acquitted on both charges.
The Iran-Contra Affair was the biggest scandal of Ronald Reagan's presidency. In 1986,
it was exposed that government officials had broken national and international law
by selling arms to Iran, in exchange for the release of American hostages in Lebanon. This
legal breach was compounded when the proceeds from the arms sales were sent to the Contras,
a cabal of right-wing rebels who were fighting Nicaragua's Marxist government.
The true extent of Reagan's involvement is unclear. In an
address to the American people in March 1987, President Reagan confusingly said,
"​​A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my
best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not."
He also deflected blame, implying that he simply trusted the wrong people.
"The way I work is to identify the problem,
find the right individuals to do the job, and then let them go to it."
According to an investigation by the Tower Commission, Reagan's loosey goosey style of
management was central to the scandal. However, the damage to his reputation was temporary. When
he left office in 1989, Reagan had the highest approval rating since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Richard Nixon is something of a benchmark for American political corruption. The
Watergate scandal, which involved the bugging and burglary of the Democratic National Committee,
occurred in June 1972. Seven individuals were charged with burglary and wiretapping — including
five burglars caught at the scene, as well as a former White House aide,
and G. Gordon Liddy, a member of Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President.
The Nixon administration denied any wrongdoing, evading the stinging negative press to win the
1972 election, in one of the greatest landslides in American history. However,
the Watergate scandal had barely begun, and Nixon, increasingly anxious and paranoid, worked hard to
keep it under control. Namely, he gave several hundred thousand dollars in hush money to the
burglars and used the CIA to obstruct the FBI's investigation, all while denying any wrongdoing.
"People have got to know whether or not their President's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook."
The case exploded when journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein published
their investigation in The Washington Post which, teamed with intense pressure
from Congress and the Supreme Court, led to President Nixon's resignation on August 8,
1974. Despite hours of audiotapes that corroborated the charges of corruption,
Nixon escaped any legal ramifications when he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were greenlit by President Harry Truman,
are among the most divisive issues of the Second World War, with some labeling them
as crimes against humanity. For example, an editorial from The Irish Times declared,
"The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had
no moral or military justification. It was a crime against humanity."
Yet others argue that the attacks were strategically justified. The
alternative was Operation Downfall, the invasion of mainland Japan by American
forces. Japanese troops had defended the island of Okinawa with deadly ferocity,
suggesting that combat on the mainland would cause a terrible waste of human life;
estimates suggested Operation Downfall would incur a million casualties on the American side alone.
Anthony Beevor wrote in History Extra,
"Truman had little choice. Japanese documents apparently indicate their
army was prepared to accept up to 28 million civilian deaths."
Despite these varied rationales,
there may never be consensus on the subjects of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In a quirky episode of criminal history, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested
by a police officer called William H. West for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage. He may have
been a sitting president, and famous Civil War general, but Officer West made his case clear,
"I want to inform you, Mr. President, that you are violating the law by speeding along
this street. Your fast driving, sir, has set the example for a lot of other gentlemen."
Grant apologized to West, yet the officer caught
the president speeding again the very next day, with the rebuke,
"I cautioned you yesterday, Mr. President, about fast driving,
and you said, sir, that it would not occur again. [...] I am very sorry Mr. President,
but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest."
President Grant and his entourage were taken to the local police station,
where he was fined $20. He reportedly had to return to the White House on foot.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).