Trump waging war on ethics
White House heading for disaster unseen since Watergate
The government watchdog organization we help lead called upon the White House last week to investigate whether one of its senior officials, Christopher Liddell, violated ethics laws by acting in his official capacity to benefit his personal investments.
We wish this were an isolated incident, but it is the latest element in an emerging pattern: President Trump and his administration are flagrantly violating ethics laws. Unless they correct course, the consequences will be disastrous — for the president, his team and the country. The problem starts at the top. Trump’s hotels, golf courses and other enterprises continue to do business with foreign and domestic entities that have interests before the government he heads. This raises serious conflicts and legal concerns, including under the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which bars U.S. government officials from receiving foreign government payments or benefits “of any kind whatever.”
The Chinese government’s grants of valuable trademarks to the Trump Organization after his election are the latest controversy. These and other alleged violations of the emoluments clause are the subject of civil litigation brought by our group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).
DISDAIN FOR ETHICS
This unprecedented situation is exacerbated by the fact that we do not yet know the full extent of Trump’s conflicts. That is because he has failed to disclose his tax returns, an omission that is also relevant to investigations of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russian interference in the U.S. general election.
Democrats in Congress, joined in some cases by Republicans, are calling for Trump to turn over his returns to shed light on his ties to Russia. Congress cannot exercise its constitutional authority — indeed, its responsibility — as a coequal branch of government without this information.
Trump’s failure to comply is more evidence of his disdain for ethics considerations.
His assault on ethics has also permeated his Cabinet. Many of his nominees have confronted ethics challenges, including Betsy DeVos and Tom Price. They were confirmed but others withdrew, among them Labor nominee Andrew Puzder and two Pentagon service secretaries.
And the confirmation process is the beginning, not the end, of ethics issues the Cabinet will confront. For example, will Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt play both sides in the lawsuits he brought against the EPA as Oklahoma attorney general?
The White House staff has been similarly compromised. Our complaint about Liddell is one of a series of staff-level concerns. Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway openly flouted ethics rules by giving Ivanka Trump’s businesses a “free commercial” on national television and got off scot-free. Even more troubling, in its defense of that outcome, the White House echoed the president’s remarkable assertion that many ethics rules do not necessarily apply to White House staff.
We couldn’t disagree more — and in the Bush and Obama White Houses, we made sure those rules were followed.
INTENSIFYING, NOT ABATING
Another ethics controversy concerns Trump’s “special adviser” Carl Icahn. Icahn admitted that he has advocated for policy decisions that could be worth a great deal of money to him. Yet he and the White House claim he is not subject to ethics and other rules that regulate such situations. His title and responsibilities would seem to us to suggest otherwise. If he’s not a government employee, then his advocacy could make him an unregistered lobbyist.
The Trump regime’s pervasive ethics issues seem to be intensifying rather than abating. That means oversight authorities — Congress, the FBI and the Justice Department, regulators such as the non-partisan Office of Government Ethics — must also intensify their efforts. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York was reportedly looking at the legality of Price’s stock trades as a congressman. That office should ask similar questions about Icahn’s conduct.
Trump could still head off this ethics train wreck. He could release his tax returns and answer questions about other issues. He could add a respected, independent ethics counsel to enforce the rules. And he could pledge full cooperation with the congressional investigation of his campaign’s Russia ties. Unless he takes these steps or others like them, he and his administration are facing civil, criminal and congressional exposure of a magnitude our nation has not seen since Watergate.