Jim Wright

In 1989, Jim Wright became the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to resign midterm due to a scandal. In April 1989, the House Ethics Committee unanimously charged him with 69 instances of violating House ethics rules. The core allegations included accepting improper gifts—specifically an $18,000-a-year job, a luxury car, and an apartment for his wife provided by businessman George A. Mallick Jr.—and circumventing outside income limits by using bulk sales of his book, Reflections of a Public Man, to solicit payments from interest groups. The committee also investigated his intervention with federal regulators on behalf of oil and gas interests and a complex 1988 oil well investment that netted him a $210,000 profit. While Wright consistently denied knowingly violating any laws or ethical rules, characterizing the investigation as a partisan campaign led by Newt Gingrich, he announced his resignation as Speaker and his House seat on May 31, 1989, to end what he termed the mindless cannibalism of the ethics process. No criminal charges were filed against him.