Teapot Dome scandal

This article is part of a series about Warren G. Harding
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The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding.^[1] The leases were the subject of an investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison, but no one was convicted of paying the bribes.

Before the Watergate scandal, Teapot Dome was regarded as the "greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics".^[2] It permanently damaged the reputation of the Harding administration, already hurt by its handling of the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 and Harding's 1922 veto of the Bonus Bill.^[3]

Congress subsequently passed permanent legislation granting itself subpoena power over tax records of any U.S. citizen, regardless of position.^[4] These laws are also considered to have empowered Congress generally.^[5]