The White House will share information it has about former lobbyists working in the Trump administration with the Office of Government Ethics, according to a report Friday.
Though Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, initially asked for a stay on the ethics agency’s request in April, he will comply now, an administration official told Reuters.
Mulvaney contends, in a letter send to OGE, that he was not trying to obstruct efforts to obtain the information but rather tried to make sure there was sound legal footing on which to proceed. After Mulvaney initially requested a stay, OGE Director Walter Shaub said the move was “highly unusual” and noted that his agency can take “corrective action proceedings” for agencies refusing OGE’s requests.
“OMB shares the belief that the executive branch must uphold the highest ethical standards in accordance with the law,” Mulvaney wrote in his letter. “Our concern was, and is, protecting the process related to the data call.”
During the campaign, Trump rallied around a call to “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C., and on Jan. 28 he signed an executive order requiring administration officials to sign off on a lobbying freeze pledge after leaving. The order not only bars officials from lobbying for five years after leaving the administration, but also bans them from lobbying for a foreign government for the rest of their lives. The Trump administration can, however, grant waivers for exemptions.
It was reported in April that the Trump administration might be working around ethics violations.
As far back as the transition period, OGE has had trouble connecting with the Trump team.
