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This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.
Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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FACT BRIEF

Has there been significantly more criminal activity in Republican presidential administrations than Democratic ones over the past 50 years?

By Austin Tannenbaum
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YES

While there is no official scorecard, various tallies suggest that in the past 50 years criminal indictments and convictions of executive-branch officials and have been much higher during Republican administrations.

A fact check by PolitiFact in early 2020 recorded 142 indictments—formal criminal accusations—related to three recent Republican administrations (Nixon, Reagan, Trump) versus two indictments during three recent Democratic administrations (Carter, Clinton, Obama). Since then, more Trump associates have been indicted, including Steve Bannon and Tom Barrack.

In 2018, the Daily Kos, using Wikipedia's list of federal political scandals, enumerated 88 court convictions—a formal declaration that someone is guilty of a crime—during the five Republican administrations since 1970. In comparison, the three Democratic administrations since 1970 were associated with two convictions, both during the Clinton presidency.

Fifty-five of the 88 convictions occurred during Nixon’s presidency, followed by 16 under Reagan, nine under George W. Bush, seven under Trump, and one each under Ford and George H. W. Bush.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
PolitiFact Many more criminal indictments under Trump, Reagan and Nixon than under Obama, Clinton and Carter
Business Insider Every Trump campaign and administration official who has been indicted on federal criminal charges
Daily Kos Updated: Comparing presidential administrations by felony arrests and convictions (as of 9/17/2018)
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Gigafact
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.