Editing Warren G. Harding (section)

=== Justice Department ===
[[File:Harry Daugherty, bw photo portrait 1920.jpg|thumb |right|[[Harry M. Daugherty]] was implicated in the scandals but was never convicted of any offense.]]

Harding's appointment of Harry M. Daugherty as Attorney General received more criticism than any other. Daugherty's Ohio lobbying and back-room maneuvers were considered to disqualify him for his office.{{sfn|Russell|p=444}} When details of the various scandals emerged in 1923 and 1924, Daugherty's many enemies were delighted at the prospect of connecting him with the dishonesty, and assumed he had taken part in Teapot Dome, though Fall and Daugherty were not friends. In February 1924, the Senate voted to investigate the Justice Department, where Daugherty remained Attorney General.{{sfn|Murray 1969|pp=473–475}}

Democratic Montana Senator [[Burton K. Wheeler]] was on the investigating committee and assumed the role of prosecutor when hearings began on March 12, 1924.{{sfn|Murray 1969|p=478}} Jess Smith had engaged in [[influence peddling]], conspiring with two other Ohioans, Howard Mannington and Fred A. Caskey, to accept payoffs from [[Prohibition in the United States|alcohol bootleggers]] to secure either immunity from prosecution or the release of liquor from government warehouses. Mannington and Caskey's residence became infamous as the [[Little Green House on K Street]].{{sfn|Trani & Wilson|p=180}} Some witnesses, such as Smith's divorced wife Roxy Stinson, and corrupt former [[FBI]] agent [[Gaston Means]], alleged that Daugherty was personally involved. Coolidge requested Daugherty's resignation when the Attorney General indicated that he would not allow Wheeler's committee access to Justice Department records, and Daugherty complied on March 28, 1924.{{sfn|Murray 1969|pp=478–479}}

The illicit activity that caused Daugherty the most problems was a Smith deal with Colonel [[Thomas W. Miller]], a former Delaware congressman, whom Harding had appointed [[Alien Property Custodian]]. Smith and Miller received a payoff of almost half a million dollars for getting a German-owned firm, the American Metal Company, released to new U.S. owners. Smith deposited $50,000 in a [[joint account]] with Daugherty, used for political purposes. Records relating to that account were destroyed by Daugherty and his brother. Miller and Daugherty were indicted for defrauding the government. The first trial, in September 1926, resulted in a [[hung jury]]; at the second, early in 1927, Miller was convicted and served prison time, but the jury again hung as to Daugherty. Though charges against Daugherty were then dropped, and he was never convicted of any offense, his refusal to take the stand in his own defense devastated what was left of his reputation. The former Attorney General remained defiant, blaming his troubles on his enemies in the labor movement and on the Communists, and wrote that he had "done nothing that prevents my looking the whole world in the face."{{sfn|Trani & Wilson|pp=180–181}}{{sfn|Murray 1969|pp=480–481}}