While John McCain Calls For Investigations Into Trump, Don't Forget What He Did For $112,000 In 1989
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., continued to call for investigations into President Donald Trump right before the Nunes memo was released last week, but it is important to remember McCain’s past transgressions.
The latest attacks on the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests – no party’s, no president’s, only Putin’s. https://t.co/6dsbcBIla6
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 2, 2018
“The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded,” McCain said in a statement. “Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows.”
McCain’s statement from last week concluded, “If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”
In the midst of the political controversy, McCain was also involved in a scandal of his own.
McCain was one of the so-called “Keating Five,” five U.S. senators accused of corruption in 1989.
Sens. Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn and Donald Riegle were the other four who tried to influence federal thrift regulators to back their political benefactor, Charles H. Keating Jr, according to The Arizona Republic.
McCain met Keating at a Navy League dinner where the two became friends, and Keating made sure to take care of his friend when McCain decided to run for office.
McCain received over $112,000 in political contributions from Keating, and the McCain family also vacationed at the Keating’s Bahamas retreat.
When the government was poised to seize Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan in 1987, Keating decided to cash in the debts of the five senators, The Arizona Republic reported.
Keating wanted the senators to get regulators to drop the case against Lincoln which claimed that the thrift was violating “direct investment” rules.
“McCain’s a wimp,” Keating said in response to DeConcini saying that his fellow senator appeared nervous during their meetings.
Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in the late 1980s and cost taxpayers $3.4 billion, according to The Arizona Republic.
After the scandal, McCain tried to save himself from the Senate Ethics Committee investigation.
He leaked to reporters about who pressured federal regulators to change the rules for Lincoln, Phoenix New Times reported. He also reportedly volunteered to appear on radio and television shows in 1989 to talk about his supposed innocence.
McCain was deemed by the Senate Ethics Committee to have demonstrated “poor judgment” when meeting with the regulators.
Among the many political scandals, the Keating Five has rivaled the Teapot Dome and even Watergate, according to the Phoenix New Times.
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