The Current Era

The period from 2016 to the present has been characterized by an unprecedented collision of long-standing corruption patterns with new technological, financial, and political dynamics. Dark money spending has reached industrial scale, with billions of dollars flowing through opaque networks that are legally shielded from disclosure. Congressional stock trading has been documented at levels that raise serious questions about the use of nonpublic information. And the COVID-19 pandemic created the largest emergency spending event in American history, with fraud losses that may ultimately exceed those of every previous federal program combined.

This era has also seen the erosion of institutional guardrails that previous generations built to constrain corruption. Ethics enforcement mechanisms have been weakened. Inspector General independence has been challenged. And the norms of conduct that supplemented formal rules, voluntary financial disclosure, deference to conflict-of-interest standards, respect for investigative independence, have frayed in ways that have no clear precedent in the modern era.

Perhaps most significantly, the current era has demonstrated that the systems of corruption documented throughout this report, lobbying, campaign finance, the revolving door, regulatory capture, are not relics of the past but active, evolving features of the present. The mechanisms change, but the fundamental dynamic remains constant: the conversion of public power into private benefit.

Congressional Insider Trading

The STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, signed into law on April 4, 2012, explicitly prohibited members of Congress and their staff from trading on material nonpublic information obtained through their official duties. The law also required timely disclosure of securities transactions. In practice, enforcement has been minimal, and documented trading patterns have raised persistent questions about compliance.

In early 2020, as congressional committees received classified briefings about the emerging COVID-19 threat, multiple senators made significant changes to their investment portfolios before the public understood the scale of the pandemic. The documented transactions included:

• Senator Richard Burr (R-NC): As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Burr received classified briefings on the pandemic threat. Between January 31 and February 13, 2020, Burr and his wife sold between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stock. The DOJ investigated and closed the investigation in January 2021 without charges. The SEC also investigated and closed its inquiry without action. Burr stepped down as Intelligence Committee chairman during the investigation.
• Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA): Beginning on January 24, 2020, the day of a full Senate briefing on COVID-19, Loeffler and her husband sold between $1.3 million and $3.1 million in stocks and purchased shares in a teleworking company. The DOJ and SEC investigated and closed their inquiries without charges. Loeffler stated that her trades were managed by independent advisors.

Beyond the pandemic-related trades, academic studies have documented that members of Congress have consistently outperformed the stock market in their personal trading. A 2022 analysis by Unusual Whales found that both Republican and Democratic members of Congress outperformed the S&P 500, with members on key committees showing particularly strong returns in sectors they oversee. While outperformance alone does not prove insider trading, the pattern has fueled bipartisan legislative proposals to ban congressional stock trading entirely.

PPP Loan Fraud: Pandemic-Scale Corruption

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), established by the CARES Act in March 2020, distributed approximately $800 billion in forgivable loans to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program was designed to move money quickly, which meant that normal fraud controls were deliberately relaxed. The result was the largest fraud event in American history.

As of 2023, the Department of Justice had charged more than 3,000 defendants with PPP-related fraud involving over $1.4 billion in fraudulent loans. The Small Business Administration's Inspector General estimated that at least $200 billion in PPP and EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loan) funds may have been disbursed improperly or fraudulently. Independent analyses have put the fraud figure even higher; a 2023 study by economists at the University of Texas estimated that approximately 15 percent of PPP loans, or roughly $117 billion, showed indicators of potential fraud.

The fraud took many forms: fabricated businesses, inflated payroll numbers, stolen identities, and applications for businesses that did not exist or had no employees. Criminal cases ranged from individuals who obtained tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent loans to sophisticated operations that stole millions. In one notable case, a Florida man obtained $3.9 million in PPP loans and used the money to purchase a Lamborghini, a Porsche, and a $318,000 home.

Dark Money & Super PAC Opacity

The post-Citizens United era has produced a campaign finance system in which the identity of political donors can be almost completely obscured from public view. "Dark money" refers to political spending by organizations that are not required to disclose their donors; primarily 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) trade associations.

The scale of dark money spending has grown exponentially:

• 2010: $131 million in dark money spending in federal elections.
• 2016: $181 million in disclosed dark money (actual amount higher due to nondisclosure).
• 2020: Over $1 billion in dark money spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The opacity extends beyond dark money to include "ghost corporations" used to funnel donations to Super PACs, the use of intermediary organizations to obscure donor identities, and the exploitation of state-level disclosure loopholes. In the 2020 election cycle, the single largest dark money group, One Nation (aligned with Senate Republican leadership), spent $165 million without disclosing any donors. On the Democratic side, the Sixteen Thirty Fund spent $410 million in the 2020 cycle through its network of groups.

Judicial Ethics Controversies

Federal judicial ethics have come under increased scrutiny in the current era. Unlike members of Congress and executive branch officials, federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, have historically been subject to limited disclosure and ethics requirements. Several documented instances have brought these gaps to public attention.

In 2023, investigative reporting by ProPublica documented that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had received undisclosed gifts and travel valued at millions of dollars over two decades from Dallas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow. The documented benefits included luxury travel on Crow's private jet and superyacht, the purchase of Thomas's mother's house (in which she continued to live rent-free), and private school tuition payments for Thomas's grandnephew whom Thomas was raising. Thomas did not disclose most of these gifts on his annual financial disclosure reports as required by the Ethics in Government Act.

In separate reporting, ProPublica documented that Justice Samuel Alito had taken an undisclosed luxury fishing trip to Alaska in 2008 aboard a private jet owned by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who subsequently had business before the Court. Alito did not recuse himself from cases involving Singer's interests.

In response to these revelations, the Supreme Court adopted its first formal code of conduct in November 2023. Critics noted that the code lacked an enforcement mechanism and was largely a codification of existing norms rather than the adoption of new binding standards.

State-Level Corruption Cases

The current era has continued to produce significant state-level corruption convictions across the country:

• Larry Householder (R-OH), Speaker of the Ohio House: Convicted on March 9, 2023, in what federal prosecutors called the "largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio." Householder accepted approximately $60 million channeled through a dark money network by FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for shepherding a $1.3 billion ratepayer-funded nuclear plant bailout (HB 6) through the legislature. Sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. FirstEnergy admitted to the bribery scheme in a July 2021 deferred prosecution agreement and paid a $230 million penalty.
• Michael Madigan (D-IL), Speaker of the Illinois House: The longest-serving state legislative leader in U.S. history (1983–2021). Indicted in March 2022 on 22 federal racketeering and bribery charges. Prosecutors alleged Madigan used his political power to solicit and receive benefits from ComEd and AT&T Illinois in exchange for favorable legislation. ComEd agreed to pay $200 million in a deferred prosecution agreement. As of early 2024, Madigan's trial was pending. Found guilty on November 2024 on racketeering and bribery charges.
• Kwame Kilpatrick (D-MI), Mayor of Detroit: Convicted on March 11, 2013, on 24 felony counts including extortion, racketeering, and mail fraud for running a criminal enterprise out of the mayor's office that extorted contractors and steered city contracts for personal enrichment. Sentenced to 28 years in federal prison. Sentence commuted by President Trump on January 20, 2021.

The Lobbying & Revolving Door Continues

The revolving door between government service and the private sector has continued to accelerate. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 65 percent of former members of Congress who left office between 2000 and 2020 took positions in lobbying, consulting, or strategic advisory roles that leveraged their government experience. Total federal lobbying expenditures reached $4.1 billion in 2022, a record.

The current era has also seen the growth of "shadow lobbying"; influence activities that are structured to avoid triggering the legal definition of "lobbying" and thus escape disclosure requirements. Former government officials who advise clients on "strategic communications" or "government affairs consulting" may perform functions indistinguishable from lobbying without registering under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. A 2021 study by the Government Accountability Office found that of the former lobbyists it sampled, a significant percentage had deregistered while continuing activities that appeared to meet the legal definition of lobbying.

Federal Corruption: Recent Convictions & Investigations

The period from 2021 to the present has produced a striking wave of federal corruption cases involving sitting and former members of Congress. These cases span the full spectrum of corruption; bribery, fraud, identity theft, foreign influence, and abuse of public trust; and have resulted in convictions, expulsions, pardons, and ongoing investigations. Taken together, they demonstrate that congressional corruption is not a relic of earlier eras but a persistent feature of the current political landscape.

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) — Gold Bar Bribery

Senator Robert Menendez was convicted on July 16, 2024, on all 16 federal counts, including extortion, conspiracy, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar. The case was one of the most severe corruption prosecutions of a sitting U.S. senator in modern history.

FBI agents who searched Menendez's home in June 2022 discovered approximately $480,000 in cash, stuffed in boots, jacket pockets, and a safe, along with approximately $150,000 in gold bars and a Mercedes-Benz automobile. Prosecutors established that Menendez used his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to perform official acts benefiting New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe, and Fred Daibes. Among the most consequential allegations: Menendez provided sensitive U.S. government information to Egyptian officials and intervened to help Egypt access approximately $300 million in U.S. military aid that had been frozen over human rights concerns.

Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison on January 29, 2025. This was his second federal corruption prosecution. His first trial, on separate bribery charges involving a Florida ophthalmologist, ended in a mistrial in November 2017 after jurors deadlocked.

Representative George Santos (R-NY) — Fraud & Expulsion

George Santos was expelled from the U.S. House of Representatives on December 1, 2023, by a vote of 311 to 114, making him only the sixth member in the history of Congress to be expelled. The House Ethics Committee had previously concluded that Santos had committed a wide range of fraudulent acts during and after his 2022 campaign.

On August 19, 2024, Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in federal court. Prosecutors established that Santos had stolen the identities of at least 11 people to make unauthorized campaign donations in their names and had laundered campaign funds for personal use, including purchases of designer goods and payments to personal credit cards. He was sentenced to 87 months (approximately 7 years and 3 months) in federal prison in April 2025. After serving approximately three months of his sentence, Santos's sentence was commuted by President Trump.

Representative Henry Cuellar (D-TX) — Foreign Bribery

Representative Henry Cuellar was indicted in May 2024 on 12 federal counts including bribery, conspiracy, and money laundering. Federal prosecutors alleged that Cuellar and his wife accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR and a bank based in Mexico City in exchange for Cuellar's official actions to benefit those entities. The alleged scheme spanned several years and included payments disguised as consulting fees to Cuellar's wife.

Despite the indictment, Cuellar was re-elected to his congressional seat in November 2024. Before the case proceeded to trial, President Trump pardoned Cuellar in December 2025, ending the prosecution.

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) — FEMA Fraud

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was indicted in November 2025 on federal charges of conspiring to steal approximately $5 million in FEMA disaster-relief funds. Prosecutors alleged that Cherfilus-McCormick used a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract to fraudulently obtain federal disaster relief money and then laundered a portion of those funds to finance her 2022 congressional campaign.

On March 26, 2026, the House Ethics Committee found Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of 25 of 27 charges brought against her, establishing a pattern of fraud and self-dealing that extended from her pre-congressional business activities into her campaign financing. She faces a maximum sentence of up to 53 years in federal prison if convicted on all criminal counts.

Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — Ethics Investigation

Representative Matt Gaetz was the subject of a Department of Justice sex trafficking investigation from 2020 to 2023. The investigation was closed without criminal charges being filed. However, the House Ethics Committee conducted a parallel investigation, and on December 23, 2024, released a 42-page report detailing its findings.

The Ethics Committee report concluded that there was "substantial evidence" that Gaetz had engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2017, had used illegal drugs including ecstasy and cocaine, and had paid multiple women for sexual activity. The report documented payments to women through third-party platforms and testimony from witnesses who corroborated the committee's findings. Gaetz resigned from Congress in November 2024, before the report's public release. No criminal charges were filed.

Former Representative TJ Cox (D-CA) — Wire Fraud

Former Representative TJ Cox pleaded guilty on February 3, 2025, to two counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors established that between 2013 and 2018, before and during his single term in Congress, Cox created unauthorized bank accounts and systematically diverted money from clients and business partners for his personal use. He also fraudulently obtained a $1.5 million construction loan by submitting false financial documents.

Cox was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison on December 15, 2025, and was ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution to his victims.

Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) — Resignation Under Investigation

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned from office on August 23, 2021, amid a rapidly escalating impeachment investigation. The resignation followed an independent investigation led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office released a 168-page report concluding that Cuomo had sexually harassed 11 women, including current and former state employees. The investigation found that the governor had engaged in unwelcome and nonconsensual touching, made offensive and sexually suggestive comments, and created a hostile work environment.

A misdemeanor criminal complaint was filed against Cuomo by the Albany County Sheriff's office, but the Albany County District Attorney subsequently moved to dismiss the charge, stating that while he found the complainant "credible," he could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Cuomo was not convicted of any crime but was effectively forced from office by the combined weight of the AG investigation and impending impeachment proceedings.

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