What are the most common types of corruption charges against US politicians since 2000?

1. Bribery and kickbacks: the core transactional crime

Bribery—accepting money, gifts or favors in exchange for official acts—dominates federal public corruption prosecutions and the illustrative scandals cited by journalists, from large congressional bribery cases to local kickback schemes that federal prosecutors pursue under federal bribery statutes and related graft laws ^{[1] [5]}. Reporting on individual cases underscores this: New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was charged in a bribery scheme involving cash, gold and favors ^[5], and investigative narratives routinely describe “gifts for favors” as the simplest and most common corruption pattern in Washington reporting ^[6].

2. Fraud charges (honest-services, mail and wire fraud): prosecutorial workhorses

Prosecutors frequently convert corrupt behavior into fraud counts—especially honest-services fraud and the long-used mail and wire fraud statutes—because those laws allow charging schemes where officials deprived the public of honest services or used communications to conceal payoffs ^{[3] [1]}. High-profile convictions and lists of federal officials rely heavily on these statutes, which have been staples of corruption prosecutions for decades and remain central in the post-2000 era ^{[1] [2]}.

3. Campaign-finance violations and improper contributions

Campaign-related abuses—illegal donations, misuse of campaign funds and schemes that blur personal/business use—are a familiar category of charges, appearing in both federal indictments and ethics probes; cases reported by outlets and compiled in misconduct databases highlight campaign-finance counts as a recurrent corruption vector ^{[7] [6]}. The overlap between campaign wrongdoing and traditional bribery or fraud often produces multi-count indictments combining election-law and corruption statutes ^{[7] [2]}.

4. RICO, conspiracy and program-bribery: when corruption looks systemic

When corruption involves networks, prosecutors escalate to conspiracy, racketeering (RICO) and federal program-bribery statutes to capture pattern conduct and organizational schemes—examples include racketeering convictions and multi-defendant investigations at state and local levels that federal lists record ^{[3] [2]}. These broader charges are less frequent than simple bribery or fraud but are used in the largest, most complex prosecutions and convictions captured in federal lists and reporting ^{[1] [3]}.

5. Embezzlement, money laundering and obstruction: adjunct but consequential counts

Embezzlement of public funds, laundering of illicit proceeds and obstruction charges routinely accompany corruption prosecutions; DOJ tracking and monthly conviction tallies show a steady stream of official convictions that include theft and financial concealment counts alongside primary bribery or fraud charges ^{[4] [2]}. Investigative pieces on municipal and mayoral scandals repeatedly document kickbacks tied to contract steering, fraud and subsequent money movement that prompt these adjunct charges ^{[8] [6]}.

6. Patterns, politics and limitations of the record

Analysis of conviction lists and news coverage shows recurring legal tools—bribery statutes, mail/wire and honest-services fraud, campaign-finance and RICO—used against politicians since 2000, but partisan narratives complicate interpretation: some outlets and commentators argue prosecutions reflect selective targeting while others point to a long bipartisan history of corruption cases across parties ^{[9] [10] [11]}. The sources used here are primarily compilations of federal convictions and press investigations; they do not provide a single authoritative, nationwide frequency table covering every state and local prosecution, so the ranking of “most common” is based on patterns visible in these statutory and reporting sources rather than a comprehensive statistical audit ^{[1] [4]}.