Latest news with #OfficeofGovernmentEthics
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump taps his most trusted officials to do as many as four jobs — at the same time
WASHINGTON — Jamieson Greer has a big job — three of them, actually. As U.S. trade representative, Greer has been flying around the world at Donald Trump's behest, negotiating with countries over the tariffs that the president imposed. On top of that, he is the government's official watchdog. The White House has appointed Greer both acting director of the Office of Government Ethics and acting head of the Office of Special Counsel. Cutting trade deals to Trump's liking is one thing. Holding the Trump administration accountable for ethical lapses is something different. The missions would seem incompatible. Yet Greer's hybrid role isn't so much an anomaly in Trump's second term as a norm. Trump has taken some Cabinet members and senior administration officials and layered on additional work that calls for wholly different sets of skills. Daniel Driscoll is secretary of the Army, but also the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The first job is about keeping soldiers in fighting trim; the second includes cracking down on contraband cigarettes. Marco Rubio is secretary of state, national security adviser and, for good measure, acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration, with its collection of rare documents that include Thomas Edison's patent application for the light bulb. He is also the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development — or what's left of it, anyway, after the Trump administration effectively dismantled it. Trump recently named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche the acting head of the Library of Congress. The Justice Department upholds the nation's laws and advances Trump's agenda; the library is supposed to give lawmakers independent research they request. The dual postings give rise to a tangle of managerial challenges, constitutional questions and potential conflicts of interest, critics contend. If a whistleblower comes forward and alleges wrongdoing at Greer's trade office, can he give the complaint a fair hearing? Is Rubio equipped to forge a peace deal in Ukraine while also ensuring that visitors have a rewarding experience at the Herbert Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa, and the 15 other presidential libraries the Archives runs? 'It is the model of a confused startup operation,' said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale University's school of management. Congressional Democrats have taken note of the appointments and objected to what they describe as an end-run around the Senate's right to confirm or reject presidential appointments. Greer was confirmed by the Senate as trade representative, but not as head of the special counsel or ethics offices. Rubio was confirmed as secretary of state, but not as the archivist. Blanche was confirmed for his Justice Department post, but not as acting librarian. Beyond that, the library's own rules state that the acting librarian must come from within the institution — a provision that would seem to rule out Blanche. (Indeed, the library disputes that Blanche is now in charge; a library official, Robert Newlen, sent an email to employees last week identifying himself as the acting librarian.) 'It's the Library of Congress; not the Library of the Attorney General or the Library of the President,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. 'This is a really offensive defiance of the constitutional role that the Senate has to play,' Blumenthal added. 'Putting someone in that role who's been approved for a different job is a thumb in the eye of the Senate.' Then there's the matter of workload. Any one of these jobs can fill 24 hours in a day. Stacking one atop another would appear to strain the limits of human endurance. In an interview last week with CNBC, Greer was asked how much sleep he gets a night. Four or five hours, he said. He had just returned from Switzerland where he took part in trade talks with China. Once he was done with his TV interviews for the day, he said he would get on the phone and talk trade with India's commerce minister. Later in the week, he flew to South Korea for a summit meeting with his overseas trade counterparts. Asked if Greer has shown up yet at the Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C., a spokesman for the office said: 'No comment.' One sign of the enormity of Greer's portfolio is that he's off-loaded part of it to an underling. He has tapped another Office of Special Counsel official, Charles Baldis, to act as his designee. Greer consults with Baldis, who is running the office on his behalf, an Office of Special Counsel aide told NBC News. A spokesperson for the U.S. trade representative did not respond to questions or make Greer available for comment. 'These jobs are difficult for people to do singly,' said Max Stier, founding president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group devoted to improving government performance. 'They require absolute and overwhelming commitment to do only one of them, and there's no way on God's green Earth someone can do multiples effectively. That has deep problems for decision-making and the capacity of these organizations to do their own work and for the morale of the workforce.' A White House spokesman defended the president's managerial practices. 'The president understands that he's built a team of extremely qualified people that can be dual-hatted and get the job done,' said Harrison Fields, the White House's principal deputy press secretary. He added that 'the president has incredible amounts of trust and confidence in those that are holding multiple roles, and he appreciates their commitment to his administration and the country.' 'Show me a situation where a ball was dropped,' Fields said. 'Show me a situation where the president's agenda failed. No one can do that. The president has a team of people who are able to walk and chew gum at the same time.' President Joe Biden's administration, by contrast, was staffed by 'so-called experts that ran our country into the ground,' Fields continued. An emerging pattern is that Trump wants his most trusted officials in roles that are important to his interests. Consider Rubio. Earlier this month, Trump took the unusual step of touting Rubio as a potential successor. 'He trusts Marco,' a Trump adviser told NBC News. The Archives job handed to Rubio would seem a governmental backwater, but it played an important role in the events leading to Trump's indictment in 2023 over his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office. The Archives notified Trump's attorneys four months after he left office in 2021 that it was missing some of his presidential records, including his correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The following year, the Archives' inspector general sent a referral letter to the Justice Department noting that Trump had retained 'highly classified records' after leaving office. Trump repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case last year. 'When he [Trump] returned to the White House in January 2025, he wasted little time in purging NARA's top leadership to make room for loyal officials more likely to do his bidding — or even to turn a blind eye to future legal violations, including of the Presidential Records Act,' American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, said in a statement. Another advantage for Trump in keeping a small circle of the same decision-makers is that it suppresses any challenges to his authority, former officials and good-government groups contend. 'If you give 20 jobs to one person, they're not going to have time to think independently,' said John Bolton, a former national security adviser who served in Trump's first term. 'They'll just do what he [Trump] tells them to do.' Upset as some lawmakers may be, there doesn't seem to be much they can do to stop Trump from concentrating key jobs in the hands of a few people. Last month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and three other Democratic members of Congress sent Greer a letter asking him to resign from his ethics jobs, arguing that he can't carry them out impartially. 'Dear Ambassador, Acting Special Counsel and Acting Director Greer,' the letter began. Greer sent a reply, but it didn't include an agreement to resign or much detail, a Democratic congressional aide told NBC News. 'We're thinking about next steps,' the aide article was originally published on
NBC News
19-05-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Trump taps his most trusted officials to do as many as four jobs — at the same time
WASHINGTON — Jamieson Greer has a big job — three of them, actually. As U.S. trade representative, Greer has been flying around the world at Donald Trump's behest, negotiating with countries over the tariffs that the president imposed. On top of that, he is the government's official watchdog. The White House has appointed Greer both acting director of the Office of Government Ethics and acting head of the Office of Special Counsel. Cutting trade deals to Trump's liking is one thing. Holding the Trump administration accountable for ethical lapses is something different. The missions would seem incompatible. Yet Greer's hybrid role isn't so much an anomaly in Trump's second term as a norm. Trump has taken some Cabinet members and senior administration officials and layered on additional work that calls for wholly different sets of skills. Daniel Driscoll is secretary of the Army, but also the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The first job is about keeping soldiers in fighting trim; the second includes cracking down on contraband cigarettes. Marco Rubio is secretary of state, national security adviser and, for good measure, acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration, with its collection of rare documents that include Thomas Edison's patent application for the light bulb. He is also the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development — or what's left of it, anyway, after the Trump administration effectively dismantled it. Trump recently named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche the acting head of the Library of Congress. The Justice Department upholds the nation's laws and advances Trump's agenda; the library is supposed to give lawmakers independent research they request. The dual postings give rise to a tangle of managerial challenges, constitutional questions and potential conflicts of interest, critics contend. If a whistleblower comes forward and alleges wrongdoing at Greer's trade office, can he give the complaint a fair hearing? Is Rubio equipped to forge a peace deal in Ukraine while also ensuring that visitors have a rewarding experience at the Herbert Hoover library in West Branch, Iowa, and the 15 other presidential libraries the Archives runs? 'It is the model of a confused startup operation,' said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale University's school of management. Congressional Democrats have taken note of the appointments and objected to what they describe as an end-run around the Senate's right to confirm or reject presidential appointments. Greer was confirmed by the Senate as trade representative, but not as head of the special counsel or ethics offices. Rubio was confirmed as secretary of state, but not as the archivist. Blanche was confirmed for his Justice Department post, but not as acting librarian. Beyond that, the library's own rules state that the acting librarian must come from within the institution — a provision that would seem to rule out Blanche. (Indeed, the library disputes that Blanche is now in charge; a library official, Robert Newlen, sent an email to employees last week identifying himself as the acting librarian.) 'It's the Library of Congress; not the Library of the Attorney General or the Library of the President,' Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. 'This is a really offensive defiance of the constitutional role that the Senate has to play,' Blumenthal added. 'Putting someone in that role who's been approved for a different job is a thumb in the eye of the Senate.' Then there's the matter of workload. Any one of these jobs can fill 24 hours in a day. Stacking one atop another would appear to strain the limits of human endurance. In an interview last week with CNBC, Greer was asked how much sleep he gets a night. Four or five hours, he said. He had just returned from Switzerland where he took part in trade talks with China. Once he was done with his TV interviews for the day, he said he would get on the phone and talk trade with India's commerce minister. Later in the week, he flew to South Korea for a summit meeting with his overseas trade counterparts. Asked if Greer has shown up yet at the Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C., a spokesman for the office said: 'No comment.' One sign of the enormity of Greer's portfolio is that he's off-loaded part of it to an underling. He has tapped another Office of Special Counsel official, Charles Baldis, to act as his designee. Greer consults with Baldis, who is running the office on his behalf, an Office of Special Counsel aide told NBC News. A spokesperson for the U.S. trade representative did not respond to questions or make Greer available for comment. 'These jobs are difficult for people to do singly,' said Max Stier, founding president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group devoted to improving government performance. 'They require absolute and overwhelming commitment to do only one of them, and there's no way on God's green Earth someone can do multiples effectively. That has deep problems for decision-making and the capacity of these organizations to do their own work and for the morale of the workforce.' A White House spokesman defended the president's managerial practices. 'The president understands that he's built a team of extremely qualified people that can be dual-hatted and get the job done,' said Harrison Fields, the White House's principal deputy press secretary. He added that 'the president has incredible amounts of trust and confidence in those that are holding multiple roles, and he appreciates their commitment to his administration and the country.' 'Show me a situation where a ball was dropped,' Fields said. 'Show me a situation where the president's agenda failed. No one can do that. The president has a team of people who are able to walk and chew gum at the same time.' President Joe Biden's administration, by contrast, was staffed by 'so-called experts that ran our country into the ground,' Fields continued. An emerging pattern is that Trump wants his most trusted officials in roles that are important to his interests. Consider Rubio. Earlier this month, Trump took the unusual step of touting Rubio as a potential successor. 'He trusts Marco,' a Trump adviser told NBC News. The Archives job handed to Rubio would seem a governmental backwater, but it played an important role in the events leading to Trump's indictment in 2023 over his retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office. The Archives notified Trump's attorneys four months after he left office in 2021 that it was missing some of his presidential records, including his correspondence with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The following year, the Archives' inspector general sent a referral letter to the Justice Department noting that Trump had retained ' highly classified records ' after leaving office. Trump repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case last year. 'When he [Trump] returned to the White House in January 2025, he wasted little time in purging NARA's top leadership to make room for loyal officials more likely to do his bidding — or even to turn a blind eye to future legal violations, including of the Presidential Records Act,' American Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, said in a statement. Another advantage for Trump in keeping a small circle of the same decision-makers is that it suppresses any challenges to his authority, former officials and good-government groups contend. 'If you give 20 jobs to one person, they're not going to have time to think independently,' said John Bolton, a former national security adviser who served in Trump's first term. 'They'll just do what he [Trump] tells them to do.' Upset as some lawmakers may be, there doesn't seem to be much they can do to stop Trump from concentrating key jobs in the hands of a few people. Last month, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and three other Democratic members of Congress sent Greer a letter asking him to resign from his ethics jobs, arguing that he can't carry them out impartially. 'Dear Ambassador, Acting Special Counsel and Acting Director Greer,' the letter began. Greer sent a reply, but it didn't include an agreement to resign or much detail, a Democratic congressional aide told NBC News. 'We're thinking about next steps,' the aide added.
Axios
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Scoop: Dem seeks probe into reports Qatar plans to gift plane to Trump
A House Democrat is seeking an investigation into reports that the Trump administration plans to accept a jet worth roughly $400 million from Qatar to serve as Air Force One — and President Trump's personal plane after he leaves office. Why it matters: The swift backlash signals that congressional Democrats may latch onto the issue when they return to session next week. The Democratic National Committee blasted out a press release Sunday afternoon branding the development as Trump's "latest grift." Driving the news: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) wrote to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the acting Department of Defense inspector general and the Office of Government Ethics requesting a probe into the matter. "With an estimated value of $400 million, the aerial palace would constitute the most valuable gift ever conferred on a President by a foreign government," he wrote in a letter first obtained by Axios. Torres asked for an "immediate" ethics review of the reported gift and an advisory opinion on whether it violates federal ethics rules or the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. He also asked for a recommendation on "policy reforms to prevent the conversion of foreign gifts into private property by current or former presidents." Zoom out: ABC News reported Sunday that the Trump administration plans to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the Qatari royal family. The plane, which Trump toured when it was parked in West Palm Beach earlier this year, has been referred to as a "flying palace." Torres, in his letter, repeatedly dubbed it a "flying grift." ABC also reported that the Justice Department has drafted an analysis for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth concluding that it would be legal to accept the gift and later transfer it to Trump's presidential library. Yes, but: Qatar's media attaché to the U.S., Ali Al-Ansari, pushed back on the ABC scoop and a matching story from The New York Times, saying in a statement to Axios that reports "that a jet is being gifted by Qatar to the United States government during the upcoming visit of President Trump are inaccurate." The statement adds: "The possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary use as Air Force One is currently under consideration between Qatar's Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, but the matter remains under review by the respective legal departments, and no decision has been made." Between the lines: Torres may have a difficult time securing a probe from the Pentagon inspector general's office or the Office of Government Ethics, both of which are run by Trump appointees.
Fox News
30-04-2025
- Business
- Fox News
This agency that targets Republicans while shielding Democrats must be dismantled
Elon Musk has claimed that one of the most common errors of a smart engineer is to optimize a thing that should not exist. But it doesn't take a SpaceX-level engineer to understand that the Office of Government Ethics – an agency few Americans know by name, but whose unchecked power casts a long shadow over our democracy – simply has no purpose in its current form. The OGE is a partisan, bureaucratic thicket that should be fully dismantled. It selectively enforces hazy rules around the financial arrangements of incoming candidates and officials – often in a heavy-handed manner against Republicans. Commonly, the two winners in a battle with OGE are (1) Democrats and (2) lawyers. As a practicing attorney in the field of political law, I have a first-hand look at this frequently-partisan battle waged by OGE against nominees and candidates. The taxpayer-funded monument to post-Watergate paranoia is a relic of a bygone era. On behalf of my clients, I have navigated its labyrinthine requirements for years, and I can attest: OGE is not a guardian of integrity, but a sanctimonious bureaucratic machine, burdening public servants with meaningless red tape while undermining the will of the electorate. It's time to dismantle this sham and restore accountability where it belongs: with the voters. Created in 1978 amid the hysteria following Watergate, OGE operates on a flawed premise: that every public official is a latent crook, requiring constant oversight by unelected mandarins. This assumption insults the intelligence of the American people, who are perfectly capable of judging their leaders at the ballot box. Ethics in government is not preserved by faceless desk jockeys wielding stacks of financial disclosure, recusal, and divestiture forms; it is enforced by citizens casting votes. Outsourcing this sacred responsibility to a bloated agency like OGE diminishes democracy itself while costing taxpayers more than $20 million annually. Even worse than the real cost to American taxpayers is the inherent tax this imposes on those looking to serve their country in the federal government. OGE's bureaucrats personally involve themselves in a probing, uncomfortable, subjective examination of the finances of nearly anyone in a middle or senior position in the federal government, along with that person's immediate family members. They consider themselves the prosecutor, judge, and jury for whether someone who has had financial success in the real world must give it all away in order to enter the government. What's worse, OGE often changes its own measurement standards, leading to limited predictability as to what a nominee can keep and what he or she must offload. As an attorney who represents clients through this process, I take no delight in this outcome, but it results in hours of needless work for lawyers and financial advisors, the costs of which must often be borne by the individual seeking to serve. Consider its practical and public failures. In recent months, OGE's obsession with nitpicking financial disclosures delayed the confirmation of President Trump's nominees during an already protracted transition. These reviews — often redundant and always laborious — added no discernible value to the public's understanding of nominees' fitness, and cannot possibly be in the public's interest. By inserting itself as an unelected gatekeeper, OGE slows governance and frustrates the mandate of elections. Worse, OGE has become a weapon of partisan warfare, selectively enforcing its vague standards to target Republicans while giving Democrats a free pass. Take the case of Biden's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who held millions in stock in an electric bus manufacturer championed by the administration. In 2021, President Biden visited the company, praising it as a cornerstone of America's green future. The company later went bankrupt, but not before the secretary cashed out with $1.6 million in capital gains after Biden's visit. OGE's response? Silence. Contrast this with the agency's relentless hounding of Trump's HHS Secretary Tom Price in 2017 over private jet travel, fueling a media firestorm that ultimately led to his resignation. The pattern is clear: OGE plays favorites, acting as a blocker to create controversies for one side while ignoring the other. This double standard extends to OGE's handling of high-profile figures. When FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr contributed to the authorship of Project 2025, Democrats cried "conflict of interest." OGE dragged out its review, allowing the Left to smear Trump's agenda unchecked, only to clear Carr after the damage was done, just two weeks before the 2024 election. Compare this to Hunter Biden's lucrative Burisma dealings during the Obama years — OGE didn't utter a peep. Similarly, Biden's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack faced no scrutiny for cozy private jet trips in 2022, while OGE amplified outrage over far less egregious Republican travel. Such selective amnesia betrays OGE's impartiality and exposes its role as a partisan cudgel of the deep state. The agency's redundancy compounds its flaws. Every federal department already has internal ethics offices, rendering OGE's $24 million annual budget a wasteful duplication. If an official breaks the law, the Department of Justice can prosecute. OGE's sister agency, the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which polices Hatch Act violations, is cut from the same cloth. In 2024, Biden's budget director Neera Tanden flirted with Hatch Act violations, fundraising brazenly on X, while FTC Chair Lina Khan appeared at Democratic campaign events, prompting a House Oversight inquiry. OSC's response? Nothing. Yet in 2017, it aggressively pursued Kellyanne Conway for a fleeting comment about Ivanka Trump's brand, demanding probes and decrying the "death of democracy." The hypocrisy is stark: Democrats skate, while Trump's allies face the guillotine. President Trump's decision to fire OGE chief David Huitema in February 2025 was a bold step in the right direction toward dismantling this deep-state agency with crosshairs on Republicans. The public's resounding reelection of Trump in 2024 was a mandate to sweep away such bureaucratic obstructions, not a call for more oversight by unelected elites. Trump's broader dismissal of 17 inspectors general alongside Huitema sparked predictable outrage, but it underscored a truth: officials elected by the voters–not agencies–hold the power to punish misconduct. Abolishing OGE would not leave ethics unpoliced. Internal agency offices, the Justice Department, and — most crucially — the electorate provide ample checks. OGE's existence only fuels conflict, delays the president's administration from being filled with his chosen advisors, and erodes trust in public institutions, the very opposite of its stated mission. It's time to end this bureaucratic charade. Let's trust the American people to hold their leaders accountable, as democracy demands.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrats press White House to disclose officials' financial transactions before tariff announcement
Several Democrats are pressing the White House to disclose financial transactions made by Trump administration officials before President Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause on his reciprocal tariffs. In a letter addressed to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, the Democrats, led by Sen. Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Rep. Mike Levin (Calif.), said 'newly identified data raises concerns about potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws' by those close to Trump with access to information not available to the public. 'We are deeply concerned about reporting of call volume spikes minutes before the President's public announcement of his change in tariff policies,' they wrote. 'We therefore urgently request a full accounting of the periodic transaction reports for all White House and executive branch employees since the start of the Administration.' Democrats have raised concerns over potential conflicts of interest of White House officials who may have made financial transactions with insider knowledge that Trump would implement the 90-day pause on his steep tariffs. Trump has dismissed the notion that an administration official would share nonpublic information about his tariff agenda with Wall Street executives after it was reported that officials gave such a heads up about progress on a deal with India. Senior government officials, including the president, are required to file periodic transaction reports so the public can be informed of their financial transactions, in addition to their annual financial disclosures. The periodic transaction reports are required to be filed within 30 days of receiving notification of certain transactions, but no later than 45 days after the transaction. Agencies then must submit reports to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). 'We are concerned that no periodic transaction reports have been posted on the OGE database for White House officials' individual disclosures at any point since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025,' the Democrats wrote. 'There is reason to doubt that not a single senior White House official or employee has made any financial transactions triggering a periodic transaction report since the start of the Administration.' The Democrats noted that senior White House officials have influence over policy decisions that can move financial markets and it's 'critical' they adhere to ethics surrounding conflicts of interest and disclosures. 'Therefore, we ask that you and appropriate White House officials urgently certify any periodic transaction reports filed by White House employees and expeditiously transmit those to OGE,' the lawmakers wrote. The Democrats asked Wiles and the White House to provide a detailed plan for how it intends to handle the situation with employees by May 9. 'By failing to take these steps, the Administration would be withholding critical information from the American people regarding potential violations of federal ethics and insider trading laws,' they concluded. In addition to Schiff and Levin, the letter was signed by 23 other Democratic lawmakers. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
