During Donald Trump’s first presidency, he engaged in unprecedented corruption and abuses of power, and surrounded himself with advisors and top appointees who had their own serious conflicts of interest. CREW frequently exposed these abuses and challenged many of them in court. As the second Trump administration begins, we took a look at some of the most notable abuses and ethical issues from last time, what’s already been happening this time around, and outline what we’ll be tracking this time:
What happened last time?
During Trump’s first term, multiple Trump associates were charged with or convicted of crimes, with several of them serving in the White House, including Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon. Since then, more former Trump associates and administration officials, including Mark Meadows, have been charged with or convicted of crimes, with
sentenced to prison time. Notably, Meadows and Rudy Giuliani were
for actions they took as part of Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election, which culminated in the January 6th insurrection, though neither have been convicted.
What’s happening this time?
This time, Trump has already
two convicted criminals to serve in his administration: Peter Navarro and Charles Kushner. Navarro, who Trump named as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, served four months in prison last year for his contempt of Congress conviction, stemming from his failure to respond to congressional subpoenas for information about Trump’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump also nominated Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, to be his administration’s ambassador to France. Kushner, who was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison for campaign finance violations, tax evasion and witness tampering, was pardoned by Trump in 2020.
