The two officials connected with the Teapot Dome oil scandal: Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall, and President Warren G. Harding.
President Harding was not directly implicated in the scandal, but was affected by it. After Pres. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, Secretary of the Interior Fall secretly gave Harry Sinclair of the Mammoth Oil Company exclusive rights to the Teapot Dome reserves in Wyoming. He granted a similar deal to another oil company executive. The secret leases came under Congressional investigation. Congress directed President Harding to cancel the leases, and the Supreme Court ruled that Harding's transfer of authority to Interior Secretary Fall had been illegal. The whole affair took a toll on President Harding's health. He died in office in 1923.
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