In March of 2022 nine-term Nebraska Senator Jeff Fortenberry was found guilty of three felony counts for making false statements to the FBI and concealing information about his campaign donations. The investigation stemmed from a campaign donation by Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury. Through three strawmen, Chagoury donated $30,000 to Fortenberry’s campaign in 2016. When brought to court, Fortenberry denied any such contributions. After the guilty verdict was delivered on March 24, 2022 — resulting in 2 years of probation and a $25,000 fine — Fortenberry resigned from his position in congress stating: “Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve.” 

Politicians make laws, but are they above them? In Fortenberry’s case: no. However, Americans seem to be no stranger to political scandals (queue Bill Clinton and Clarence Thomas for example), yet multiple serious indictments are rarely issued to those in high-ranking office. Politicians — like Jeff Fortenberry — are more often found to commit politically focused, white-collar crimes which are financially motivated crimes of a non-violent, or not directly violent nature. Crimes of fiscal motivation often do not result in serious jail time. Nixon for instance, stepped out of his presidential seat to avoid jail time for the Watergate scandal, dashing his hopes of returning to political power. 

The former president Donald Trump has been issued four indictments since he left office in January 2021. Trump is the first current or former president in US history to face criminal charges. These historic indictments have shown the public examples of what actions bring a powerful politician to court.

Trump’s first indictment was issued for allegedly falsifying business records in the first degree to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels after she tried to sell a story of her and Trump’s affair following Trump announcing his bid for office. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened to sue the magazine that was attempting to buy Daniels’ story. Daniels’ agent then leaked the story to a gossip blog, but the post was quickly taken down following complaints by Trump’s lawyers. 

In 2016, the National Inquirer bought the story from Daniels and the editor-in-chief negotiated a non-disclosure-agreement between Daniels and Cohen to suppress the story. Cohen allegedly paid Daniels the hush money through a shell company incorporated in Delaware. Trump has also written several checks to Cohen adding up to $420,000. The checks were to reimburse Cohen for the NDA payments, and for the alleged manipulation of online polls to boost Trump’s status. The payments were made during his last year of presidency and were claimed to cover legal expenses. If this were found false it would be a misdemeanor in the state of New York. Prosecutors have also considered the legality of Cohen’s payments. Under New York law, falsifying business statements to cover up a crime is a class E felony. Trump claimed to a reporter that he didn’t know where Cohen got the hush money from.

Trump’s second indictment came in June of 2023 due to his alleged mishandling of federal documents. This indictment pulled in his personal aide, valet, and the maintenance chief of Mar-a-Lago. The original indictment brought 37 felony counts against Trump on June 8th. On July 28th, a superseding indictment added more charges against the former president. 

The Presidential Records Act states that before a president leaves office they are required to return all documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Trump’s term ended January 2021, and in May of the same year, NARA noticed there were several missing documents from Trump’s administration which led them to open an investigation and search his residences at Mar-a-Lago and the Bedminster Club. The FBI later found evidence that Trump was personally involved with the removal of the documents. 

After demanding the return of the missing documents multiple times from Trump’s team and warning about a referral from the Justice Department, NARA seized 15 boxes of documents in January 2022. Upon retrieval of the documents, NARA found out the boxes contained 184 documents of classified materials. NARA reported their findings to the Justice Department on February 9, 2022, which led to an FBI investigation on March 30, 2022. In May, the Justice Department sent a subpoena to Trump to return the remaining records, and Trump certified they would be returned on June 3, 2022. After he returned the remaining documents, the FBI got evidence that Trump still had documents in his possession which led to a warrant to search his Mar-a-Lago residence that August. Through the three interactions with Trump, approximately 13,000 documents were recovered, including 337 documents that were marked classified. Some were found to hold national defense secrets covered under the Espionage Act. In November of 2022, the FBI investigation was taken over by a special counsel investigation headed by Jack Smith who was appointed by the Attorney General Merrick Garland. 

Last month brought two additional indictments against the former president. The first came on the first of August. It accused him of attempting to overturn election results and playing a major hand in the January 6th attack on the Capital. Trump questioned the results of the 2020 election and blamed his loss on mail-in ballots, voting machines, “dead voters,” and other irregularities. He allegedly directly attempted to overturn the results of the election by creating pro-Trump slates of fake electors. He then pressured Vice President Pence to count the fake electors in place of the electors certified by the states. The Department of Justice opened an investigation on the plot in January of 2022 and expanded it to encompass January 6th’s attack.

The second August indictment came on August 14th. Trump was indicted along with 18 co-conspirators for tampering with the 2020 election in Georgia. It alleges Trump of running a ‘criminal racketeering enterprise’. Trump and the 18 defendants are being charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. Trump and co-conspirators allegedly plotted to create a slate of fake electors. In addition, an incriminatory phone call was found between Trump and the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump suggests he ‘find 11,780 votes.’ This was just enough votes to sway the election into Trump’s favor. A small group of Trump allies in Coffee County, Georgia also allegedly accessed voting machines in an attempt to find evidence of election fraud. 

While it is often unlikely for politicians to be indicted and tried, these are examples that show the legal gravity of politicians who attempt election fraud, the mishandling of classified documents, and falsifying business records at state and federal levels.