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| Uh oh. |
The Office of Government Ethics has rejected a White House attempt to block the agency's compilation of federal ethics rules waivers granted to officials hired into the Trump administration from corporations and lobbying firms.
The White House action, a letter to OGE Director Walter M. Shaub Jr. from Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, was first reported by The New York Times. The newspaper had earlier published a detailed account of lobbyists turned appointees who were granted waivers and now oversee regulations they previously had lobbied against.
With an ethics waiver, a federal official is free to act on matters that normally would trigger concerns about conflicts of interest or other ethical problems. Federal regulations say the waivers generally should be made public on request. The Obama administration routinely posted waivers online. The Trump administration has issued an unknown number and released none.
Shaub notified the White House and federal agencies in April that OGE wanted to see all ethics waivers issued by President Trump's administration. He set June 1 as the deadline. The broad request is known as a data call.
Oh I think we see another Trump White House scandal looming over the horizon.
Fighting this only goes to prove that the Trump Administration is terrified of ANY disclosures of what they have been doing behind the scenes.
I would be willing to bet that there are some very interesting ethics waivers that have to do with, not just with members of the cabinet, but members of the Trump family as well.
Source http://ift.tt/2rT7iIb
