 After being released from prison , in an effort to exonerate President Harding , Forbes wrote an article for the New York World , published December 4 , 1927 , that alleged Harding was " duped " by his appointees and cabinet known as the Ohio Gang . He claimed to have found Jess Smith picking up $ 70 @,@ 000 in $ 1 @,@ 000 bills scattered on a Justice Department office floor . Smith was an aide to President Harding 's U.S. Attorney General Harry Daugherty . While he helped Smith pick up the money from the floor , Smith told him the money was Daugherty 's . Forbes said that the ability to buy narcotics was rampant at Atlanta and Leavenworth federal prisons while Daugherty was attorney general . Forbes stated that Harding 's personal physician , Charles E. Sawyer , was a " pernicious meddler " . Forbes made a blanket statement that President Harding had not profited in any way from the scandals during the Harding Administration . Forbes claimed that President Harding was " excessively loyal " with his friends , to a fault . At a poker game in the White House , Forbes said that Harding would remove a $ 1 @,@ 000 fine imposed on prize fighter Jack Johnson who had been released from Leavenworth Penitentiary in 1921 . 
