Ex-lobbyists waived into government
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has granted about two dozen ethics waivers to ex-lobbyists and others now working in government — outpacing former President Barack Obama’s administration despite the new president’s promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington.
The Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday disclosed about a dozen such waivers handed out across federal agencies. That adds to the 14 waivers released recently by the White House. In all of Obama’s first year in office, records show, 22 ethics waivers were granted.
The Trump-era waivers, revealed after a battle between his administration and the top government ethics adviser, enable some government employees to work on some of the same issued they’d handled in the private sector.
Lance Leggitt exemplifies the type of Washington insider that Trump disparaged during the campaign as a creature of the swamp. Until becoming chief of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, Leggitt was a registered lobbyist and attorney in the health law practice group of a Washington megafirm.
Trump expressly forbade that type of employment history in a series of ethics policies he put in place shortly after taking office. But the Trump administration waived its own rules for Leggitt, the newly released documents show.
Seema Verma, the head of Medicare and Medicaid, obtained a waiver to work with states that she had previously called clients while she was a healthcare consultant. Among the issues she handled for them? Navigating Medicare and Medicaid.
Her waiver notes that she must continue to recuse herself from anything that crosses with her spouse’s financial interests, which include the Indiana Health Group.
Verma’s need to work with states she previously called clients “outweighs any concern about a potential appearance of lack of integrity,” her waiver says.
Government attorneys — including then-acting Solicitor General Noel Francisco — who’d previously been with Jones Day required ethics waivers to work on one of the appeals to Trump’s travel ban. That firm had filed amicus briefs in the case, potentially creating a conflict for the Justice Department attorneys because they’re prohibited from working on matters related to their former employers.
Other agency ethics waivers deal with less serious matters. For example, several former Fox News employees who have become agency spokespeople were given waivers to ensure they weren’t running afoul of the ethics pledge by talking to their former employer.