{"id":33986,"date":"2017-07-07T05:51:34","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T05:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=33986"},"modified":"2017-07-07T05:51:34","modified_gmt":"2017-07-07T05:51:34","slug":"ethics-director-who-clashed-with-trump-resigns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/ethics-director-who-clashed-with-trump-resigns.html","title":{"rendered":"Ethics director who clashed with Trump resigns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethics director who clashed with Trump resigns<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Walter Shaub, the leader of the federal government\u2019s ethics office who previously criticized President Trump over the president’s business interests, submitted his resignation on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

He will leave office nearly six months before the end of his term.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shaub will officially step down from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on July 19, according to a letter to Trump that Shaub posted on his Twitter account.<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter was a veiled shot at the Trump administration, which has routinely clashed with the small independent agency over the appearances of conflicts of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe great privilege and honor of my career has been to lead OGE\u2019s staff and the community of ethics officials in the federal executive branch,\u201d Shaub wrote. \u201cThey are committed to protecting the principle that public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical principals above private gain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful for the efforts of this dedicated and patriotic assembly of public servants, and I am proud to have served with them,\u201d the letter closes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schaub has served in OGE under both Republican and Democratic presidents, starting his tenure during the George W. Bush administration. He became director under former President Barack Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n

His term was set to end in January 2018. He has worked for more than a decade in the ethics office \u2014 as the attorney in charge of the presidential nomination program, then as deputy general counsel. Obama named him as the agency\u2019s director in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Except for a short stint in private practice, he has worked as a lawyer in various government agencies since 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shaub told The Washington Post that no one in the Trump administration pressured him to leave his position early.<\/span><\/p>\n

But, \u201cit\u2019s clear that there isn\u2019t more I could accomplish,\u201d he told the publication.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shaub told CBS News on Thursday evening that he doesn’t know whether Trump is profiting from his businesses, but that’s not the point.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I can\u2019t know what their intention is. I know that the effect is that there\u2019s an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency,”he told CBS News correspondent Julianna Goldman during the first televised interview following his resignation.<\/span><\/p>\n

“And appearance matters as much as reality, so even aside from whether or not that\u2019s actually happening, we need to send a message to the world that the United States is going to have the gold standard for an ethics program in government, which is what we\u2019ve always had,” he continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

“America should have the right to know what the motivations of its leaders are, and they need to know that financial interests\u2014personal financial interests\u2014aren\u2019t among them,” Shaub told CBS News.<\/span><\/p>\n

OGE Chief of Staff Shelley Finlayson is the first in line to succeed Shaub as acting director, but rules allow the White House to pick from senior officials at the office to fill the top slot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The OGE director position is decided by the president, and all eyes will be on whether Trump chooses someone to lead OGE or simply keeps the slot vacant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even before Trump was sworn in as president, Shaub had been outspoken about and openly frustrated by the businessman\u2019s efforts to meet federal ethics standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November, the OGE\u2019s official Twitter account began sending out sarcastic missives after the newly elected president wavered about whether he would disconnect himself from his businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBrilliant! Divestiture is good for you, good for America!\u201d the tweets read.<\/span><\/p>\n

In January, prior to the inauguration, Shaub made a rare public appearance at the Brookings Institution in Washington, where he criticized the president.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Jan. 11, a lawyer for Trump unveiled how the president would structure his businesses after he stepped into the Oval Office. Rather than completely divesting, Trump would maintain connections to his business empire \u2014 though only be permitted limited access to information about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shaub forcefully disagreed with the arrangement, calling it \u201cwholly inadequate\u201d in resolving any potential conflicts of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan the president-elect has announced doesn\u2019t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the last four decades have met,\u201d Shaub said during the Brookings speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump’s lawyer Sheri Dillon countered that selling off all of the president’s assets would create even more possible conflicts.<\/span><\/p>\n

The OGE has no enforcement power of any federal ethics rules; that\u2019s left to ethics officials within each agency and the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not fighting against him. I\u2019m fighting for the ethics program. And there is a difference,\u201d Shaub told The New York Times in May. \u201cBecause if I succeed, he\u2019ll benefit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several former White House ethics counsels expressed surprise at the few times that either political nominees or the president himself pushed back against some of the OGE guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The White House has even appeared to bristle at mundane requests for information.<\/span><\/p>\n

In May, when the OGE issued a routine data call for any waivers to the federal ethics program that the government handed out, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney questioned its authority to make the request.<\/span><\/p>\n

“OGE declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive by June 1, 2017,\u201d Shaub shot back in a letter to Mulvaney. \u201cPublic confidence in the integrity of government decision-making demands no less.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Mulvaney said the whole thing was a miscommunication, and the financial disclosures were released on time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The agency has been working overtime to confirm Trump\u2019s political appointees, and touted Wednesday on Twitter that even though the picks\u2019 \u201cdisclosures are more complex, OGE is reviewing nominees faster than in the last transition while upholding the same standards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent months, the OGE has also called out other White House officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

In February, it urged the White House to reprimand Kellyanne Conway \u2014 who appeared to promote a clothing brand owned by Trump\u2019s daughter Ivanka on television \u2014 and told lawmakers that an ethics waiver for White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon looked \u201cproblematic\u201d without a signature or date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shaub will go to the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit focused on political and election law, to head up its ethics practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn working with the current administration, it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program. I look forward to working toward that aim at Campaign Legal Center, as well as working on ethics reforms at all levels of government,\u201d Shaub said in a statement released by the center on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Campaign Legal Center is helmed by Trevor Potter, a former Republican chairman of the Federal Election Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s imperative that we sustain a culture of high ethical standards in our government,\u201d Potter said in a statement. \u201cWalt, in serving the American public at the OGE under three presidents, has demonstrated the highest level of professionalism and integrity. All of us at CLC are thrilled to have him join us in our continuing work to protect and improve our democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/340846-ethics-director-who-clashed-with-trump-resigns<\/span><\/p>\n

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