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The breadth of his bribe-taking was stunning and his high-life antics were gauche. The former Top Gun fighter ace at times appeared like an aging playboy stuck in the 1970s on his party-pad boat at the Capital Yacht Club, and he had a habit of giving signed photographs of his old self in a Navy flight suit to total strangers. Then-President Donald Trump’s 11th-hour pardon of the former congressman — announced early Wednesday morning along with more than 140 others — won’t change Cunningham’s history. He has admitted his crimes and already served the time. It’s also a “conditiona...

January 20, 2021 10:38 a.m. Disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s messy “bribe menu” was, apparently, just tacky enough to garner President Trump’s sympathy. In an 11th hour move, Trump used his final moments as President to issue pardons and clemency to 143 people, including his aides and associates as well as friends of his closest allies. The list includes Duke Cunningham and his lava lamp. Trump issued Cunningham a conditional pardon, as Cunningham was released from prison in 2013. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was behind the clemenc...

TPM Illustration/Getty Images The Time TPM Went To Toronto In Search Of Rob Ford, And Other Golden Duke Stories In the Trump era, political scandals of yesteryear are routinely written off as quaint — events from a time when the bar for decency was higher and our collective threshold for tolerating scandal hadn’t yet been dismantled by the brazen, unethical behavior that the Trump administration ushered in. That’s not quite the case with Rob Ford. The crack-smoking late mayor of Toronto, upon receiving the much-coveted TPM Golden Duke award in January of 2014, was se...

A partial and continually updated glossary of Josh Marshallisms (or, more broadly, TPMisms).     appreciate the congrats: What you say when you’ve done something really awesome. An homage to Trump’s memorable response to the Pulse nightclub shooting: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!” the Aqua-Duke: The boat on which Randy “Duke” Cunningham lived, owned by defense contractor Mitchell Wade. Also, more formally, known as the Duke-Stir. Bamboozlepalooza: The George W. Bush ...

James Traficant (1) Randy “Duke” Cunningham: The former congressman — and Golden Dukes’ namesake — was sentenced to more than eight years in prison in 2006 after he was indicted on bribery charges. “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA), it appeared, had secretly accepted millions from defense contractors in exchange for lucrative federal government contracts. He even maintained a “bribe menu” and was gifted fancy antiques in exchange for public dollars. Most notably, Cunningham sold his home to defense contractor Mitchell Wade of MZM Inc. for upwards of $1.6 million. He also lived rent-f...