Trump Wants To Keep Ethic Waivers Secret
D. S. Mitchell
Calamity Politics, a West Coast based progressive political blog, attempts to shine a light into the murky world of U.S. political dog fighting
I have been silent for a day or two while I did some archive updates and computer housekeeping. I added lots of new pictures. If you haven’t taken a look at the site for a while, I welcome you back and hope you take a few minutes to look at some of the old stories. As I was adding pictures I was surprised to note that most of the same issues that were shocking me six months ago are still shocking me, today.
Now that the house cleaning is complete I am back. My storytelling fingers have been itching to get back to covering the hot button current events of our day. This White House has dropped a shield around itself. There is not even a pretense of transparency. Dozens of former lobbyists and industry lawyers have been hired by the Trump administration. In late January President Trump signed an executive order that “barred lobbyists and lawyers” hired as political appointees from participating in “particular” policy issues that involved former clients for two years. Trump of course, like previous presidents, reserved the right to “issue a waiver” to anyone he wanted to hire. This action is not new. What is new is that the Trump White House has been steadfastly refusing to release evidence of any such waivers, or acknowledgement of who waivers were granted to, or disclosure of any accompanying documents.
-
- Walter M. Shaub Jr., head of the Office Of Government Ethics has asked every federal agency for copies of all waivers and accompanying documentation issued by Trump be returned to his office no later than June 1, 2017. In response the White House challenged Shaub’s “legal authority” to demand such information. Mick Mulvaney, chief of the Office of Management and Budget requested more time to review “the scope of OGE authorities”, without specifying what those questions were.
In a statement provided to the NY Times, Mulvaney switched tactics, and accused Shaub of “playing politics” and attacked the “expansive scope and breathless timetable, demanded that we seek further guidance”. The reason for the “expansive” scope is because Trump has hired innumerable former lobbyists and industry lawyers for the administration, many of whom the administration has attempted to conceal from public scrutiny. For every minute the waivers are kept secret the Trump appointees are able to potentially advance their own financial interests.
A week after attempting to further stonewall the requests by the OGE, the White House announced it will comply with the OGE request and will publicly disclose all waivers that the White House has quietly given out since January that allow these former lobbyists to work in the administration. The White House position was drawing heavy fire from ethics watchdogs. These waivers are given on a case-by-case basis, and in effect, allow appointees to work on policies that may overlap with issues they worked on with former employers.
A white House spokesperson called the shift “a clarification” rather than a “reversal”. Mr. Shaub expressed appreciation for the stated change in attitude by the White House, but added, “there should have been no need for a confrontation on the matter. This is really routine stuff”. Ethics lawyers said that such waivers must be made public “so that the limits on what topics a federal government employee can or cannot take up are not secret.”
There has been belief outside the administration, that the Trump administration, while promising to “drain the swamp” had “instead looked for ways to fill the federal government with former lobbyists and industry lawyers, putting them into jobs from which they could help former clients get special favors, be it in the energy industry or Wall Street,” said Norman Eisen. Ambassador Eisen, a former ethics advisor for the Obama administration continued, “It’s a victory for checks and balances, the rule of law and the independent oversight of the Office of Government Ethics, and the news media.”
Senior officials with the OGE, state that in the near 40 year history of the department, there has never been another administration that attempted to block access, or discourage the collection of ethics compliance data. There are approximately 4,000 political appointees who would be subject to ethics rules. It must be noted, however, many of the 4,000 jobs have not been filled.
This seems like a small story when compared to the glaring headlines of the day, but in so many ways it is a really big story. The Trump administration wants to hide its activities. Trump is trying to run the U.S. government as if he was Mafia Don. We don’t need more secrets, we need more transparency, which is something that this administration will attempt to thwart at every opportunity.
Dar
