National Post (National Edition)
Trump's business ties fuel row over ethics
Clashes with small federal agency
MR. SHAUB HAS TAKEN A VERY AGGRESSIVE STANCE.
WASHINGTON • Presidentelect Donald Trump’s refusal to divest from his global business empire has provoked a showdown in Washington over government ethics, pitting a small federal agency tasked with preventing conflicts of interest against the incoming administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill.
The dispute erupted Friday after a top House Republican demanded to question the director of the independent Office of Government Ethics, who took the unusual step this week of denouncing Trump for retaining ownership of his businesses while transferring management to his sons.
With Republicans and Democrats weighing in, the episode has brought unprecedented attention to a usually obscure office and its director, Walter Shaub, who became an instant sensation on Twitter and in news headlines this week after he blasted Trump’s plan as “meaningless” and said the president-elect is not meeting the standards set by “the best of his nominees.”
House Republicans reacted swiftly, summoning Shaub to appear before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer questions about his office and his public criticism of Trump.
Late Thursday, committee chairman Jason Chaffetz sent Shaub a letter summoning him to appear before lawmakers in a closeddoor, transcribed interview much like a deposition.
But ethics experts and Democrats on Capitol Hill said the letter, by noting that the ethics office is up for reauthorization by Congress, was a veiled threat to slash its budget unless Shaub changes his rhetoric.
“I want to talk about the whole department,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “Mr. Shaub has taken a very aggressive stance on issues he’s never looked at. He’s raised a bunch of eyebrows.”
He called Shaub, appointed by President Barack Obama to a five-year term that ends in a year, “a bit of a hothead.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer came to Shaub’s defence, accusing Chaffetz of an “attempt to intimidate” Shaub and his agency.
Shaub’s supporters are calling him a hero, pushed by Trump’s tangle of potential conflicts to uphold his duty as a public official and call out a plan he believes is unethical, if legal.
The non-partisan ethics office, with just 75 employees and a $16 million budget, has always been seen and not heard as its lawyers advise incoming presidents, their cabinet nominees and other officials on how to avoid conflicts of interest.
Before nomination hearings for Trump’s cabinet began this week, Shaub accused Republicans of rushing through some nominees before his staff had finished vetting their financial disclosure documents. He sent a letter to Senate Democrats and did not include Republicans, further raising GOP suspicions about his motives.
Shaub, through a spokesman, declined a request for an interview.
Among Shaub’s critics is America Rising, a GOP super PAC that does rapid response and opposition research. The group filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the ethics office in search of communications it believes may show that Shaub coordinated with Democrats during the transition to hurt the incoming Trump administration.
Richard Painter, who was ethics adviser to George W. Bush, said Chaffetz’s letter amounts to a “clear threat to pull the funding of the Office of Government Ethics” unless the agency follows the wishes of Trump and the Republican leadership.
“They are saying lay off Trump and push through these nominees or we’ll kill the funding of OGE,” Painter said.