The Trump administration released ethics waivers for over a dozen White House employees late Wednesday, exempting key personnel from ethics rules the president previously imposed over government officials by executive order.
Similar waivers were issued during the Obama-era, prompting a rebuke from the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
Those granted waivers according to Wednesday’s announcement include chief of staff Reince Priebus, who may continue to coordinate with the Republican National Committee; energy advisor Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist guiding the administration’s environmental policies; Andrew Olmem a finance policy hand who lobbied for insurance consortiums; Joshua Pitcock, the vice president’s chief of staff; Shahira Knight a Fidelity Investments executive turned lobbyist turned tax and retirement counselor; and six administration lawyers who worked at Jones Day, a law firm the president retained as campaign counsel during the general election. All six are allowed to participate in the firm’s ongoing representation of Trump.
The disclosures were made on the White House’s website.
“The White House has voluntarily released the ethics waivers as part of the President’s commitment to the American people to be transparent,” the administration said in a statement attending the announcement. “The White House Counsel’s Office worked closely with all White House officials to avoid conflicts arising from their former places of employment or investment holdings. To the furthest extent possible, counsel worked with each staffer to recuse from conflicting conduct rather than being granted waivers, which has led to the limited number of waivers being issued.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an advocacy group formerly led by Clinton flunky David Brock which is engaging the president in separate litigation, lambasted the White House as a haven of corruption.
“No one has believed for months that this president or his administration had any interest in ethics, but these waivers make clear the remarkable extent to which they are comfortable mixing their own personal interests with the country’s,” the organization said in a statement. It’s no wonder they waited for the cover of night to release them.” CREW lodged a complaint about White House chief strategist’s Steve Bannon’s compliance with ethics rules in late March.
OGE issued a wide-reaching memorandum in 2010, after it learned several individuals in the Obama administration had been granted ethics waivers retroactively — in other words, Obama officials received waivers after potential conflicts of interest had already played out.
“The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) has become aware of several situations in which ethics officials have issued waivers…after employees acted in particular matters from which they should have been recused, or otherwise engaged in conduct that was prohibited,” the memo read. “These incidents have highlighted the need for OGE to address the obligations imposed on ethics officials and others involved in issuing waivers, as well as to clarify that waivers and authorizations must be issued prospectively in order to be valid.”
The announcement concerned only those employees working for the president and vice president. It is possible other waivers were issued to employees in other agencies.
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