[6][7] McLaughlin was censured by the New York State Assembly Ethics Committee in 2017 for violations of the Sexual Harassment Policy after he requested a female staff member send him nude photos.
Not attractive — and you’re a (expletive) awful human being.”[12] In 2013, McLaughlin criticized Cuomo's gun control policies and compared him to Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, and Putin.
[14] After defeating Deputy County Executive Christopher Meyer in a contentious Republican primary,[15] McLaughlin narrowly prevailed over Democrat Andrea Smyth in the general election.
[17] In November 2019, leaked audio from a verbally abusive private meeting between McLaughlin, several of his top political and governmental aides, former Republican Congressman John Sweeney, and then-Republican candidate for Troy mayor Thomas Reale, was published by the Times Union.
[18] During the meeting, McLaughlin, County Director of Operations Richard Christ, County Director of Purchasing James Gordon, and Sweeney pressured Reale to drop out of the mayoral race and endorse Rodney Wiltshire,[19] a third-party candidate defeated in the Democratic primary by incumbent Democratic Mayor Patrick Madden.
[23] On December 1, 2021, McLaughlin was indicted on two felony counts, including grand larceny in the third degree for misusing campaign funds to pay personal debts.
[25] In April 2023, several of McLaughlin’s top aides, including Christ and Gordon, were indicted by the FBI on federal criminal charges which alleged fraud and intimidation were used to obtain absentee ballots in the names of voters during the 2021 primary and general elections in Rensselaer County.