Trump’s presidency spurs a new crop of watchdog groups
Cottage industry springs up to track administration’s possible ethical violations
WASHINGTON – One group has filed 12 lawsuits targeting either President Trump or the actions of his administration. Another organization has submitted 527 public- records requests sprinkled throughout the federal government. Yet another has collected 1.3 million signatures calling for Trump’s impeachment.
The biggest risk to Trump’s presidency may be special counsel Robert Mueller’s high- profile investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election, which has already led to criminal charges against two Trump campaign advisers and a guilty plea from a third.
But the president faces an aggressive cottage industry of watchdog groups that are closely tracking — and challenging — his every move. Brandnew groups have launched this year, and others have expanded their missions, flush with donations from people eager to provide a check on Trump and his policies. Many have liberal leanings.
“If you look at the landscape of groups that are active right now, I think the Trump administration should be nervous because I don’t see a lot of wiggle room for them,” said Austin Evers, a former Obama administration lawyer who runs one of the new groups, American Oversight.
“If they transgress, someone’s going to catch them,” he said.
American Oversight’s team of lawyers has used the Freedom of Information Act to send more than 500 public- records requests to 30 government agencies.
The group helped uncover examples of Ivanka Trump’s use of personal email to conduct government work and unearth the industry- heavy calendar of appointments kept by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
The groups pursuing Trump say they are trying to keep close tabs on a president who is bucking ethical norms by retaining ownership of his businesses and abruptly firing FBI Di- rector James Comey, who was leading the agency’s probe into the Russian government’s involvement in last year’s election.
“We are in a crisis of ethics,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “There are ethics and conflicts and influence problems in this administration unlike any we have ever seen. And it began with the president’s decision not to divest from his businesses.”
White House officials this week contended that Trump is operating ethically. As an example, they point to his signing of a far- reaching ethics policy that, among other things, tries to slow the revolving door between government and industry by imposing a five- year cooling- off period before former government appointees can work as lobbyists.
“An organized onslaught from partisan groups committed to undermining the President’s agenda can’t change the fact that he has elevated ethics within this administration,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement.
Republican groups are not sitting on the sidelines.
“We are in a crisis of ethics. ... And it began with the president’s decision not to divest from his businesses.” Noah Bookbinder Executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
One GOP- aligned organization, America Rising PAC, already has 20 full- time trackers following Democratic Senate candidates in key 2018 races, along with a slew of potential contenders for the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, said Alexandra Smith, the group’s executive director.
A special focus will be highlighting any examples of ethical lapses among Democrats, she said.
But the organizations currently keeping a watchful eye on Trump during his first year in office are bombarding the administration from all sides.
CREW, whose board members include former White House ethics lawyers and vocal Trump critics Norm Eisen and Richard Painter, has filed 12 lawsuits challenging Trump’s actions or those of his aides. One landed in the first week of his presidency, contending that Trump is violating a constitutional provision the bars him from receiving any economic benefits from foreign interests by continuing to derive profits from his businesses.
Among other CREW lawsuits is one seeking visitor logs from the White House and Trump’s Florida resort, Mar- a- Lago.
Free Speech for People was launched seven years ago in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens Unit
ed opening the door to unlimited money in candidate elections, but it has expanded its mission to focus on Trump, said President John Bonifaz. It has joined with liberal Roots Action to call for a Trump impeachment investigation.
But it also had pushed big state pension systems to dump a real- estate fund that owns Trump SoHo because an arm of the Trump business empire managed the property.
On Wednesday, the Trump Organization announced it had reached a deal to end its management of the 46story hotel- condominium in New York.