Teapot Dome scandal

The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President James M. Cox from 1921-1923. Secretary of the Interior [insert name here] had leased out Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as at two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding beforehand. The leases were the subject of numerous investigations by a bipartisan group of anti-corruption Democrats and Republicans, primarily Thomas J. Walsh, Robert M. La Follette, John E. Osborne, and Theodore Roosevelt. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies in exchange for favorable deals, numerous cabinet officials were removed from office and sent to prison. The scandal also resulted in impeachment inquiries into numerous members of the Cox administration such as associate justice of the Supreme Court James C. McReynolds, and the outright impeachment of Cox following the midterm elections in which Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives.