Stand up up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth and so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More than Info

I would similar to contribute

The hearing room of the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as the panel debated impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (AP)

The hearing room of the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as the panel debated impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (AP)

The hearing room of the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as the panel debated impeachment of President Richard Nixon. (AP)

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

A Facebook postal service claimed that there have been 317 criminal indictments in the administrations of three recent Republican presidents — Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon — and only iii indictments under 3 recent Democratic presidents — Barack Obama, Pecker Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Here's what the mail said well-nigh those presidents, whose terms date back to 1969 when Nixon was in office:

"Recent administrations with the MOST criminal indictments:

Trump (Republican) — 215

Nixon (Republican) — 76

Reagan (Republican) — 26

"Contempo administrations with the Least criminal indictments:

Obama (Democrat) — 0

Carter (Democrat) — 1

Clinton (Democrat) — 2

"Find a pattern?"

Unless an administration official is charged with a crime for acts while in role, information technology's not always easy to identify which indictments tin be connected to a presidential administration; some administration officials have been indicted for acts in the private sector, some indicted people were involved in presidential campaigns but didn't work in the administration, etc.

This claim exaggerates the number of indictments nether Trump, in particular, past counting the number of criminal charges filed, rather than the number of people indicted; and it includes the indictments of people who are not part of his administration, such equally 25 Russians.

On the whole, however, the indictments under the three GOP presidents do dwarf those under the three Democrats.

What an indictment is

An indictment is substantially a ii-pace process in the federal organization:

1. An agency such as the FBI or the IRS investigates possible crimes. If the agency decides to seek criminal charges, the case goes to a thousand jury.

2. The grand jury is designed to be an impartial body of citizens fatigued from the community that, with the aid of prosecutors, conducts its own investigation, in hole-and-corner. If the grand jury decides that criminal charges should be filed, an indictment is issued.

(Conviction, of course, would occur only after a plea bargain or trial.)

The indictment formally charges a person or persons with a criminal offense or offenses. In other words, i indictment can contain multiple criminal charges against a single individual or against multiple individuals.

Trump indictments

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election netted indictments against 34 people and three entities.

Withal, 25 of the people indicted are Russian nationals or Russian intelligence officers.

Merely six of the 34 indicated are in Trump'southward orbit:

Paul Manafort (48/25 counts): Onetime Trump campaign chairman, former lobbyist for Ukrainian officials; crimes alleged not connected to his work for Trump. Convicted of taxation and depository financial institution fraud. Oct. thirty, 2017 indictment (with Gates): Counts 1-vi; 10-12: nine. February. thirteen, 2018 indictment: 18. Feb. 22, 2018 superseding indictment (with Gates): Counts 1-five; 10-14; 24-32: 19. Sept. 14, 2018, superseding criminal information: ii.

Rick Gates (23 counts): Elevation deputy to Manafort, one-time lobbyist for Ukrainian officials; crimes alleged not connected to his work for Trump. Pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and financial fraud related to hiding money he earned lobbying for politicians in the Ukraine along with Manafort. October. 30, 2017 (with Manafort): Counts 1-ii; seven-12: 8. Feb. 22, 2018 superseding indictment (with Manafort) Counts six-10; xv-32.

Roger Stone (7 counts): Longtime adviser; Trump entrada official dispatched Stone to get data from WikiLeaks about the thousands of hacked Democratic emails in an attempt to damage Hillary Clinton'due south 2016 presidential campaign. Convicted of obstructing a congressional inquiry, lying to investigators under oath and trying to block the testimony of a witness whose business relationship would take exposed his lies.

Michael Cohen (1 count): Longtime Trump lawyer and adviser. Pleaded guilty to a serial of criminal charges, including a campaign finance law violation that implicated the president only was unrelated to the Russia interference investigation.

George Papadopoulos (1 count): Campaign adviser on foreign policy to Trump. Pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his efforts to put the Trump entrada in contact with Moscow.

Michael Flynn (one count): Campaign adviser to Trump and then briefly his national security adviser. Indicted November. 30, 2017. Pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI nigh his discussions with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition. Flynn and Kislyak had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia for election meddling.

Because of the diverse indictments filed against Manafort, one could count a total of 48 charges against him. But ultimately he faced 25 charges: He went on trial for 18 charges (and was plant guilty of 8 of them) and then faced seven more charges (he pleaded guilty to two).

So, that's a total of 58 or 81 charges against Trump associates — not 215.

Only the claim nosotros're checking refers not to individual charges simply indictments, of which in that location are only a one-half dozen directly tied to Trump.

The other presidents

Nosotros contacted more than a half-dozen presidential historians and none said they were enlightened of a source that lists the number of indictments during the presidential administrations in question.

Just we did observe tallies organized a chip differently in a March 2019 article past FiveThirtyEight. The article counted the number of people indicted in cases made by special counsels, from Watergate through Mueller.

Nixon: 28 key indictments. There were 72 indictments charging 68 people (58 were convicted), all in the Watergate scandal or related investigations. Only arguably only 28 of the 68 were office of, or closely tied to, Nixon's assistants. They included 2 of Nixon's attorneys general, 2 White House counsels, two secretaries of treasury and a number of White Firm aides.

Click here to meet a spreadsheet listing the Watergate indictments.

Reagan: 33 people indicted. 18 people indicted (16 convicted) in an investigation of fraud, corruption and influence-peddling inside the Department of Housing and Urban Development; 14 people, including Caspar Weinberger and Oliver North, charged (11 convicted) in the Islamic republic of iran-contra scandal, an illicit arms bargain with Iran orchestrated by members of the administration; and White Business firm aide Lyn Nofziger was charged (his conviction was overturned) over abuse allegations surrounding Wedtech, a military contractor.

Clinton: 2officials indicted. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was charged (and acquitted) over allegations that he accustomed improper gifts from businesses and lobbyists. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros was bedevilled (and pardoned) of making simulated statements to law enforcement about hush coin payments to his sometime mistress.

Obama: None.

Carter: None.

Our ruling

A Facebook postal service said that there have been 317 criminal indictments under iii recent Republican presidents and only three under iii recent Autonomous presidents.

The claim is essentially on target for the Democratic presidents, simply the comparison to the GOP presidents is overstated, because the numbers of Trump and Nixon administration indictments claimed are profoundly exaggerated.

Even so, with a generous count, there were roughly 142 people indicted in the iii GOP presidents — far less than 317, but far more than the two nether the Democrats.

We rate the statement Half True.

Facebook, postal service, Dec. 29, 2019

The Atlantic, "After Mueller: The Ongoing Investigations Surrounding Trump," March 22, 2019

ABC, "Here's a breakdown of indictments and cases in Mueller's probe," Nov. fifteen, 2019

FBI, "A Brief Description of the Federal Criminal Justice Process," accessed Jan. 2, 2020

New York Times, "Indicting Roger Stone, Mueller Shows Link Between Trump Campaign and WikiLeaks," January. 25, 2019

New York Times, Roger Stone indictment, Jan. 24, 2019

Paul Manafort indictment, Feb. 13, 2018

U.S. Department of Justice, Rick Manafort superseding criminal information, Sept. 14, 2018

New York Times, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates indictment, Oct. 30, 2017

U.Southward. Department of Justice, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates superseding indictment, Feb. 22, 2018

U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Flynn information, Nov. 30, 2017

U.S. Department of Justice, "Special Counsel'due south Office," accessed Jan. 2, 2010

U.S. Department of Justice, George Papadopoulos criminal information, October. iii, 2017

U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Cohen criminal information

PolitiFact, "All of the people facing charges from Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling," March 25, 2019

Business Insider, "Hither'due south everyone who has been charged and convicted in the Russia probe so far," Nov. 15, 2019

U.Southward. Department of Justice, "Charging," accessed Jan. 4, 2020

Daily Kos, "Comparing Presidential Administrations by Felony Arrests and Convictions," Sept. 18, 2018

FiveThiryEight, "Is The Russian federation Investigation Really Another Watergate?" March 22, 2019

Watergate: A Cursory History with Documents, edited by historian Stanley Kutler

Watergate Special Prosecution Study

Email, New York University Wagner clinical associate professor of public service Timothy Naftali, Dec. 31, 2019

Email, Wayne Land University professor of law Peter Henning, Jan. 3, 2020

E-mail, Bowdoin College professor of government and legal studies Andrew Rudalevige, Jan. 2, 2020

Email, Hofstra University political science professor Meena Bose, Jan. 1, 2020

Email, University of Virginia Miller Middle researcher Ken Hughes, Jan. one, 2020

E-mail, Shirley Anne Warshaw, professor of political scientific discipline, Gettysburg College, Dec. 31, 2019

Email, George Washington University historian James Banner, December. 31, 2019


Email, David Greenberg, professor of history and of journalism & media studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, Dec. 31, 2019

Read Virtually Our Procedure

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up