21 scandals that rocked the Trump administration in 2018

Rob Porter, a White House staff secretary and right-hand man to chief of staff John Kelly, resigned in early February after two of his ex-wives came forward with allegations of domestic abuse, sending the West Wing into chaos.

Many of Porter's White House colleagues stuck by him even as the women came forward with disturbing accounts of physical assault, photographs of black eyes, and protective orders they filed against Porter. The allegations were considered serious enough to deny Porter a security clearance, according to reports.

While Kelly publicly stated he was "shocked" by the claims, multiple news reports asserted the White House was aware of the allegations for months before they became public.

In a bipartisan meeting with members of Congress, Trump reportedly referred to nations including Haiti, El Salvador, and a number of African nations as "shithole countries," and lamented why the US wasn't seeing more people immigrate from places like Norway.

The remarks garnered heavy backlash from figures in Washington and the media.

"I don't know how to break this to you, but I think the president might be racist," Trevor Noah, host of "The Daily Show," said.

"Sir, they're not shithole countries," joked "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert. "For one, Donald Trump isn't their president."

After Trump's first Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin resigned following an internal investigation showed he used taxpayer money on flights to Europe and accepted improper gifts, Trump nominated his personal physician Ronny Jackson to the post.

But Jackson's nomination was derailed when his White House colleagues accused Jackson of over-prescribing opiates and drinking heavily on the job, which contributed to him allegedly sexually harassing female colleagues and drunkenly "wrecking" a government vehicle.

Amid the misconduct allegations and questions over his qualifications to lead a federal agency as large and complex as the VA, Jackson withdrew from consideration.

On May 10, White House sources told The Hill that press aide Kelly Sadler mocked deceased GOP Sen. John McCain's terminal diagnosis, joking that his opposition to CIA Director nominee Gina Haspel "didn't matter" because "he's going to die soon anyway."

McCain died of a rare, aggressive form of brain cancer in August 2018. While Sadler left the White House after her remarks leaked, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway told CNN Sadler would be welcome to apply for other roles in the administration.

In May 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled out a "zero tolerance" policy to prosecute all adults who crossed the border illegally with children, departing from the practice of previous administrations which only prosecuted parents accused of other crimes.

While adults were jailed and prosecuted for misdemeanor illegal entry, their children were placed in shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and put into a completely separate process.

The policy resulted in months of chaos and confusion at the border, as the Department of Homeland Security found themselves with no coherent plan to reunite families despite orders to do so from federal judges.

Hundreds of parents were deported back to their home countries without their children, many of whom remained in shelters, were placed with foster families, or even adopted out. The separations were denounced as cruel by politicians on both sides of the aisle, every living former First Lady, and the United Nations.

In July 2018, embattled EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned from his position after being plagued by a series of ethics scandals over abuse of government resources and his lavish spending habits.

Pruitt reportedly enlisted his government staff to carry out a variety of personal errands, including helping him procure a used Trump Tower mattress, discounted Rose Bowl tickets, Ritz-Carlton lotion, and a new apartment. He also reportedly used his office to help secure a Chick Fil-A franchise for his wife and a White House internship for his daughter.

On July 16, Trump shocked and angered Democrats and Republicans alike during his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, when he slammed his political foes and sided with Russia over the conclusions of his own intelligence agencies.

When asked by a reporter whether he believed the unanimous consensus of the US intelligence community that the Russian government meddled in the 2016 election, the president responded, "My people came to me ... they said they think it's Russia" that interfered. Trump added, "I have President Putin. He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be."

He added that he had "great confidence" in his "intelligence people" but that Putin "was extremely strong and powerful in his denial" of Russian interference.

In the wake of his remarks, a slate of intelligence and national security veterans told INSIDER they believed Trump acted exactly like a "controlled asset" beside his handler.

Former White House advisor and "Celebrity Apprentice" contestant Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who was fired in December 2017, resurfaced in the public eye this summer to promote her book "Unhinged."

Aside from releasing a tape she recorded of Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her in Trump's situation room, Manigault-Newman made a number of claims against members of the administration.

She said tapes of Trump using the n-word on the set of "The Apprentice" do indeed exist, that Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks releasing hacked emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, and that she walked in on him eating paper in the Oval Office.

Trump and press secretary Sarah Sanders vehemently denied Maginault-Newman's claims, with Trump calling her a "dog" who "cried and begged" for a job.

Citing "erratic conduct and behavior" as the reason for Brennan's clearance being revoked, the White House also accused Brennan — who has frequently criticized Trump since leaving the CIA in 2017 — of using his clearance to "make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations, wild outbursts on the internet and television, about this administration."

The move stunned intelligence and military veterans, who saw the revocation as a politically motivated abuse of power.

Sanders also announced the administration was considering revoking the clearances of other officials who had publicly criticized Trump, including former DNI James Clapper, former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden, FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and former national security advisor Susan Rice.

The bombshell report accused Ross, who managed a private equity firm before joining the administration, of pathologically swindling his business associates out of their share of profits and misleading investors for decades.

The article also charged Ross, whose net worth is estimated at $700 milion, with failing to follow through on his pledges to charity, not paying his domestic staff, and even swiping hundreds of Sweet'N Low packets from a local restaurant.

In response, the Department of Commerce called the article "petty nonsense."

On August 21, Trump's longtime personal lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to a series of felony crimes involving Trump.

Cohen entered guilty pleas to five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, one count of making an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an illegal campaign finance contribution on October 27, 2016 — the day a $130,000 payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels was finalized.

During his plea entry, Cohen said he had made the illegal campaign and corporate contributions "at the direction of the candidate" and with the "purpose of influencing the election."

He did not identify said candidate by name, but the criminal complaint, which refers to said candidate as "individual 1," said that person became President of the United States in January 2017 — meaning it can be only be President Donald Trump.

On December 12, Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison.

Also on August 21, a jury in Virginia convicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on eight counts of federal tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report foreign bank accounts after a dramatic weeks-long trial.

Manafort was prosecuted and tried as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A mistrial was declared on an additional 10 charges filed against Manafort after the jury failed to come to a consensus.

"It doesn't involve me, but it's a very sad thing that happened," Trump said in response to the conviction. "This has nothing to with Russian collusion...this has absolutely nothing to do — this is a witch hunt."

On Sept. 5, The New York Times opinion section published an anonymous op-ed from a senior Trump administration official who claimed to be part of a "silent resistance" of White House staffers reining in Trump's "more misguided impulses."

"Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," the unnamed person wrote of President Donald Trump. "I would know. I am one of them."

"We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response.

"This is a new low for the so-called 'paper of record,' and it should issue an apology, just as it did after the election for its disastrous coverage of the Trump campaign," she added, despite the fact The Times never apologized for its 2016 coverage. The Times also did not apologize for publishing the op-ed.

In August, The New York Times reported that top White House lawyer Don McGahn voluntarily provided over 30 hours of testimony in the Mueller probe as a self-protection measure out of fear that Trump would make him his "fall guy."

McGahn was present for a number of moments crucial to the Mueller probe's inquiry into whether Trump obstructed justice.

These include his firing of FBI Director James Comey, his efforts to force attorney general Jeff Sessions to oversee the Russia probe after recusing himself, his knowledge of Michael Flynn's criminal offenses, and reported attempts to fire Mueller himself.

McGahn has since left the administration.

In November 2018, the New York Times and CNN reported that Trump wanted to order the Department of Justice to open investigations into James Comey and Hillary Clinton, two of his political foes.

Trump reportedly raised the prospect of investigating Comey and Clinton with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who took over following Jeff Sessions' ouster.

The idea was shut down by former White House counsel Don McGahn, who told Trump he didn't have the authority to order a DOJ investigation and the move would appear to be a politically motivated abuse of power.

The White House took the extraordinary step of revoking CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta's hard press pass after releasing video that sought to portray him "putting his hands" on a press aide, which independent experts said was intentionally doctored.

CNN took the White House to court, and a federal judge ruled in Acosta's favor, granting his request for a temporary restraining order to have his pass restored.

The White House then decided to fully restore Acosta's press pass, prompting CNN to drop their lawsuit. They also issued new, stricter rules for the media to follow during briefings.

The Post reported that White House adviser Ivanka Trump regularly used a private email account using a domain shared with her husband Jared Kushner for official government business, sending "hundreds" of mainly logistical and scheduling emails to other officials from the private email address.

"She was the worst offender in the White House," a former senior government official familiar with the review of Ivanka's emails told The Post about her email usage, which could violate the Presidential Records Act.

While Trump frequently attacked his opponent Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email address and server while she was secretary of state, he defended his daughter Ivanka's conduct.

"Ivanka did some emails, they weren't classified like Hillary Clinton, they weren't deleted like Hillary Clinton ... she wasn't doing anything to hide her emails," Trump said.

US Customs & Border Patrol faced backlash after using tear gas on a group of Central American migrants attempting to storm the border at the Tijuana port of entry, including several young children.

"We ran, but when you run the smoke asphyxiates you more," Ana Zuniga, a 23-year-old woman from Honduras, told the AP while holding her 3-year-old daughter.

The use of tear gas against unarmed migrants was slammed by civil and human rights groups around the world.

Trump defended the border patrol's actions, calling it “a very minor form of the tear gas itself” that he said was “very safe.”

“Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it’s going to be formed and they were running up with a child?” he added, asserting without evidence that many of the women gassed were not real parents but "grabbers" who came to the border with children who were not their own.

A bombshell Miami Herald investigation revealed that current US Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta played a key role in securing a drastically reduced sentence for billionaire financier and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

Prosecutors and law enforcement had enough evidence to put Epstein behind bars for life for molesting at least 80 underage girls in what one detective described as a "sexual pyramid scheme" that went on for years.

But Acosta struck a deal with Epstein's lawyers for Epstein to serve just 13 months in his own private jail cell, register as a sex offender, and pay restitution to victims. Epstein also provided testimony against two former Bear Stearns executives for their role in the 2008 financial crisis.

On Nov. 29, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal courtroom on one count of lying to Congress about the time during which the Trump Organization actively pursued a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow and entered into a formal cooperation agreement with Mueller.

Cohen pleaded guilty to misleading the House Select Committee on Intelligence when he said in September 2017 testimony that the talks to build a Trump Tower ended in January 2016.

In reality, prosecutors said, they continued well into June 2016 after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee. Cohen also pleaded guilty to lying to Congress after testifying that he never agreed to travel to Russia and had not been in contact with Russian officials.

In a sentencing memorandum, lawyers for Cohen said he gave 70 hours of testimony to the special counsel's office and met with prosecutors in New York pursuing other Trump-related inquiries.