The FBI’s search of former US President Donald Trump’s Florida home has sparked a long history of investigations involving former US presidents at or near their jobs, amid sometimes high-profile scandals.
Although the search of Trump’s Florida residence marks the first time in history that the FBI has raided the home of a former US president, Trump is not the first US president (former or current) to be investigated by the FBI.
Among the U.S. presidents who faced FBI investigations instead of as private citizens were:
Richard Nixon: On August 8, 1974, Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, resigned to avoid impeachment over the Watergate scandal.
On June 17, 1972, a political crisis erupted in the United States after five people were arrested at the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington while installing secret recording devices, Nixon was impeached, resigned, and tried.
On January 8, 1973, the Watergate impeachment trial began, while Nixon’s impeachment proceedings began before the House Judiciary Committee on May 9, 1974.
To avoid impeachment, Nixon gave his resignation speech, becoming the only US president to resign.
Ronald Reagan: The administration of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, who served from 1981 to 1989, is facing an investigation into the “Iran-Contra” scandal involving the secret sale of American weapons to Iran in exchange for the country’s freedom. became. American hostages in Lebanon by Hezbollah.
The Reagan administration reportedly used the money from the sale to aid rebels in an attempt to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, which Reagan denied any knowledge of.
Arms sales to Iran at a time when Iran was subject to an arms embargo by the US government faced criticism, the main reason for which was the attack on the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the taking of 52 Americans hostage.
Several White House officials, including Colonel Oliver North, a member of the National Security Council, were charged in the investigation, but no evidence of Reagan’s involvement was found.
Bill Clinton: Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, and his wife, Hillary Clinton (Secretary of State and future presidential candidate), were involved in the Whitewater scandal over their real estate investments in the southern state of Arkansas in 2018 were interrogated. United States before either reached the Oval Office in 1993.
And “Whitewater” is a topic that ignited a political debate at the domestic level of the United States, starting with real estate investment projects by Bill and Hillary Clinton and their partners Jim and Susan McDougal, and establishing a company called Whitewater Development. they did ) who declared bankruptcy in 1970 and 1980.
And the credit for exposing the scandal is due to an article published in the “New York Times” during the 1992 presidential campaign, in which it was stated that Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary had invested in this development and lost money. From “white water”.
The Clintons were accused of pressuring an Arkansas banker to make an illegal loan to McDougal, as well as fraudulently obtaining money for use in Clinton’s gubernatorial campaign.
There were multiple investigations into the allegations by US agencies, Congress and special prosecutors, but the Clintons were cleared of any wrongdoing.
And that wasn’t the only time Clinton was investigated, in 1994 she was involved in a sexual harassment case by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee linked to White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Despite House charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, Clinton was acquitted by the US Senate after she was impeached in the Jones and Lewinsky case in February 1999, and she served out the remainder of her second term.
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, served from 2001 to 2009, and some members of his administration have been accused of leaking the identity of an undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to journalist Robert Nova.
Pulim and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, then US president, accused Bush Jr. of exaggerating the evidence to justify the war in Iraq (tolerating the Iraqi government, led by Saddam Hussein, as possessing weapons of mass destruction). , a claim that has been proven over many years.
Several Bush administration officials faced a 22-month investigation.
In the same case, Louis Scooter Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to federal agents.
No evidence was found of Bush’s involvement in the Plim case.
Source: Lebanon Debate
