Corruption

High levels of corruption are not only a cause of democratic failure but an effect of decadent institutions. Thus the path to controlling corruption – through robust accountability, the rule of law, and a vigorous civil society – is also the path to sustainable democracy. Larry Diamond
the way the Supreme Court got rid of campaign finance reform and allowed open, unlimited secret buying of elections is the height of corruption. Top Ten Signs the US is the most Corrupt nation in the World Juan Cole 02/22/2018
“Arguments in defense of the centralization of power and rising authoritarianism are always different, but the results are always the same: corruption, stagnation, dictatorship, repression, violence.” Gary Kasparov

There is evidence that high levels of wealth inequality, as in the US, are highly correlated with corruption. (1, 2)

America is ... the international kleptocrats’ favorite place to launder money. In a 2011 forensic study of grand corruption cases, the World Bank found that the United States was the leading jurisdiction of incorporation for the entities involved in the money laundering schemes. “The money is coming from everywhere,” says John Tobon, head of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, where its Foreign Corruption Investigations Group is headquartered. This should not be the case if the U.S. AML system were fit for its purpose. Money Laundering for 21st Century Authoritarianism by Ben Judah
The Supreme Court, by adopting an a historical and improperly narrow view of corruption, has shut down an exploration of the very real threat that unrestricted campaign spending actually posses to our democracy....corruption, broadly understood as placing private interests over the public good in public office, is at the root of what ails American democracy. (from David Cole's, New York Review of Books review of, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin's Snuff Box to Citizens United: Zeyphyr Teachout.)
Whatever the explanation, something has clearly changed; there’s a lot more obvious corruption at the top than there was. And the costs of that corruption, I’d argue, include a process of demoralization. Kids used to look up to public figures, sports stars in particular, as role models. Do they still? Can they, given what public figures will do if the checks are big enough? Paul Krugman (6/16/2022) NYT
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today." ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Centralization of power in the executive, politicization of the judiciary, attacks on independent media, the use of public office for private gain—the signs of democratic regression are well known. The only surprising thing is where they’ve turned up. As a Latin American friend put it ruefully, “We’ve seen this movie before, just never in English.” Foreign Affairs: Is Democracy Dying ?

Trump made up to $160 million from foreign countries as president (4/13/2023)

Committee on Oversight and Reform Letter to Jared Kushner. (6/2/2022)

Why did the Saudis invest $2 bn with Jared Kushner? (4/12/2022)

Trump Org Made $1.7 Billion While Trump Was President, Much of It From Taxpayers (11/30/2021)

6 Ways Trump Has Sold Out America (10/31/2019)

Profiting off the Presidency: Trump’s Violations of the Emoluments Clauses (10/1/2019)

Donald Trump Has Hit the Corruption Trifecta (11/10/2019)

Betsy Devos’ $225 million in outside income is only the tip of the iceberg. (3/22/2021)

Trump’s Corruption: The Definitive List (10/28/2018) NYT

Top Ten Signs the US is the most Corrupt nation in the World (02/22/2018 Edn.) Juan Cole

Why Corruption Matters (11/28/2016)

Representative Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado:
“Could you charge the president with a crime after he left office?”
Mueller: “Yes.”
Buck (sounding startled): “You believe you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?”
Mueller: “Yes.”

The Mueller Hearings and the Stench in Washington: Nicholas Kristof
the Western financial system has made contemporary globalization a friendly environment for kleptocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Our October 2016 report, The Kleptocracy Curse, showed how the West provided safe spaces for corrupt elites to drain illicit wealth from their nations on a gigantic scale. Enabling kleptocracy, the report argued, has cursed U.S. foreign policy with strengthened authoritarianism, state failure, civil unrest and social degradation across the world. Money Laundering for 21st Century Authoritarianism by Ben Judah
the worst kind of one-party state "invariably replaces all first-rate talent, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." Hannah Arendt wrote in the 1940's. The American Crisis, What Went Wrong, How We Recover P150
"The fact that 75% of the American people believe that corruption is widespread in our government may be the most important single indicator in the US presidential race. The rise of so many outsider candidates is a signal the American people are tired of words and want decisive change." Newt Gingrich
In the Trump administration, conflicts of interest were basically a job requirement:
  • A conflicted shipping heiress runs DOT
  • An oil lobbyist runs DOI
  • A coal lobbyist runs EPA
  • A Raytheon lobbyist runs DOD
  • A pharma exec runs HHS
  • A Boeing exec runs DOD
  • A Verizon lawyer runs FCC
  • A banking exec runs Treasury
  • And a failed mail-order meat salesman runs the country
Public Citizen (7/2019)

The Self-Dealing Administration (10/16/2020)

Donald Trump Has At Least $1 Billion In Debt, More Than Twice The Amount He Suggested (10/16/2020)

What is corruption? Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority. Transparency International's corruption perception index.

Corruption occurs when the law and government have failed. It is corrosive of democracy since it undermines elections, buys media, rigs the market, misdirects policy, and rewards the politically powerful.

Rick Scott of Florida

Links

Money

Citizens United

Crime

Russia

Fascism

Trump

Republican Scam

Most Corrupt

Citizens For Ethics (CREW)

Represent Us

American Oversight

Transparency International

Panama Papers

Kleptocracy Initiative

Anti-Corruption (wikipedia)

Republic Report

Mueller’s indictments

Restore Public Trust

Against Crony Capitalism

WolfPAC

Search Google for Trump corruption.
There´s too much to try to list.

“We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress… If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.” Mick Mulvaney

Steve Bannon Is Charged With Fraud in We Build the Wall Campaign (8/20/2020)

New York AG sues to dissolve the NRA: “Top executives funneled millions into their own pockets” (8/7/2020)

Viral 'Crime Infested' Trump Tower Thread Details Convicted Criminals, Russian Mobster Tenants Over The Years (8/1/2020)

Trump Tried To Get UK Govt To Have British Open Hosted At His Turnberry Resort In Scotland (7/22/2020)

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Hoovered Up $400,000 In Campaign Funds In Just 2 Days, Records Reveal (7/18/2020)

New York Prosecutors Believe Ivanka Trump Skimmed Millions From The 2016 Inaugural Fund (3/9/2020)

Look Out, Corruption Ahead (4/2020) The Atlantic

Tinker, Tailor, Mobster, Trump (3/31/2020)

High levels of corruption are not only a cause of democratic failure but an effect of decadent institutions. Thus the path to controlling corruption – through robust accountability, the rule of law, and a vigorous civil society – is also the path to sustainable democracy. Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency by Larry Jay Diamond
the Western financial system has made contemporary globalization a friendly environment for kleptocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Our October 2016 report, The Kleptocracy Curse, showed how the West provided safe spaces for corrupt elites to drain illicit wealth from their nations on a gigantic scale. Enabling kleptocracy, the report argued, has cursed U.S. foreign policy with strengthened authoritarianism, state failure, civil unrest and social degradation across the world. Money Laundering for 21st Century Authoritarianism by Ben Judah

Army Decides a Pandemic Is a Good Time to Give GOP Donors $569 Million to ‘Build the Wall’ (4/17/2020)

Trump, Scorsese, and the Frankfurt School’s Theory of Racket Society By Martin Jay (4/5/2020)

Pharma-Funded Group Tied to a Top Trump Donor Is Promoting Malaria Drug to the President (4/6/2020)

Trump Could Profit From Coronavirus Testing (3/6/2020)

How Trump's business empire is cashing in on the 2020 campaign (3/9/2020)

Trump’s latest pardons show how quickly he’s normalizing corruption (2/19/2020)

Are Trump and his circle manipulating the markets for personal gain? Here's the evidence (1/26/2020)

The Next Decade Will Be Just as Bad (11/20/19)

“There Is Definite Hanky-Panky Going On”: The Fantastically Profitable Mystery of the Trump Chaos Trades (10/16/2019)

Global Witness

Pharma

The extraordinary concentration of wealth in this new Gilded Age, and the tilt of public policy in its favor, is itself evidence of corruption. Why Has Trump’s Exceptional Corruption Gone Unchecked?

Trump Tried to Kill Anti-Bribery Rule He Deemed ‘Unfair,’ New Book Alleges (1/15/2020)

The perception that corruption pervades governments has increased all across the globe. In 2013 Gallup reported that majorities in 108 out of 129 countries see corruption as a widespread problem. In the United States the percentage believing corruption endemic in government rose from 59 percent in 2006 to 79 percent in 2013. In another poll 90 percent of Americans said they would favor tough campaign finance laws to get money out of politics, and when ¨campaign finance¨ was changed to ¨corruption¨ that figure rose to 97 percent. American Oligarchy, The permanent Political Class: Ron Formisano (P61)
Corruption has a partisan bias

Why Has Trump’s Exceptional Corruption Gone Unchecked? (9/2/2019)

Mitch McConnell Gets His Russia Payoff As Oligarch Invests $200 Million In Kentucky (4/15/2019)

In Foreign Policy Speech, Elizabeth Warren Takes Aim at Global Corruption (11/29/2018)

Trump’s southeast regional EPA administrator indicted on Alabama ethics charges (11/14/2018)

'Unfit to serve'? US interior secretary faces fresh ethics scrutiny (10/30/2018)

Is Fraud Part of the Trump Organization’s Business Model? (10/17/2018)

Come Home, Little Senator (9/5/2018)

Trump Leaves 13 Agency Watchdog Positions Unfilled (8/20/2018)

Pruitt aides reveal new details of his spending and management at EPA (7/2/2018)

Corruption Hits the Small Time: Paul Krugman (6/8/2018)

There Is Only One Trump Scandal (5/21/2018)

The Kushners Are Finally Getting That Sweet, Sweet Qatari Cash ... (5/17/2018)

The Menendez trial revealed everything that's gone wrong with US bribery law (11/17/2017)

House G.O.P. Votes to Gut Independent Congressional Ethics Office (1/3/2017)

Links

Many more criminal indictments under Trump, Reagan and Nixon than under Obama, Clinton and Carter

The Massive Reagan Administration Corruption.

Bibliography

The Kushners Are Finally Getting That Sweet, Sweet Qatari Cash ... (5/17/2018)

Corruption Perceptions Index

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43.

It reveals that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world. While there are exceptions, the data shows that despite some progress, most countries are failing to make serious inroads against corruption.