Notoriety is a major determinant of a scandal, that is, the amount of press dedicated to it. Also included as scandals are politicians who resign, quit, run, or commit suicide while being investigated or threatened with investigation. The finding of a court is the sole method used to determine a violation of law, but it is not the sole method of determining a scandal. Many decisions are controversial, many decisions are unpopular, that alone does not make them scandals. Scandals are separate from 'controversies', (which implies two differing points of view) and 'unpopularity'. Scandal is defined as 'loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety'. This list also does not include crimes that occur outside the politician's tenure (such as before or after their term in office) unless they specifically stem from acts made while in office and discovered later. Private citizens should only be mentioned when they are closely linked to the scandal or politician, such as Jack Abramoff. Please note that every president directly selects, appoints or hires several thousand people. In this article, the term ' politician' (a person who is professionally involved in politics) includes not only those elected, but also party officials, candidates for office, their staffs and appointees. Members of both parties are listed under the term of the president in office at the time the scandal took place, even though they may not be connected with the presiding president.

This article is organized by presidential terms in order, older to recent, and then divided into scandals of the federal Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government.

Scope and organization of political scandals This article provides a list of political scandals that involve officials from the government of the United States, sorted from oldest to most recent.

You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness.

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