Claude Allen, the President’s domestic-policy adviser, had seemed to be doing everything right in his career, so it was a surprise when he announced he was leaving to spend more time with his family. Word then leaked that he’d been arrested the month before for stealing merchandise from Target and Hecht’s and then attempting to return it. Police found that Allen—who was earning $161,000—had been credited more than $5,000 on his credit card in more than two dozen such schemes dating back to 2005. He tearfully apologized during an August sentencing and received two years’ supervised probation.
