The chief of the Office of Government Ethics on Wednesday lambasted President-elect Trump’s newly announced conflicts of interest plan as “meaningless” because they do not meet the federal government’s requirements.
OGE chief Walter Shaub said Trump’s “stepping back” from his business interests would be expected regardless of his plan to do so, but added that Trump failed to address “the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for personal profit.”
Trump should follow the example of secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, whose exit plan serves as a “sterling model” for what government ethics’ officials would like to see with other nominees, he said.
“Mr. Tillerson’s making a clear break from Exxon. He’s also forfeiting bonus payments worth millions. As a result of OGE’s work, he’s now free of conflicts of interests,” Shaub said.
It’s not too late for Trump to get his affairs in order, as long as that process is completed by Jan. 20, he said. The agency’s primary recommendation for Trump is to divest his conflicting assets because “nothing short of divestiture will resolve these conflicts.”
“The idea of setting up a trust to hold his operating businesses adds nothing to the nation. This is not a blind trust, not even close,” Shaub explained. “The notion that there won’t be new deals doesn’t solve the problem with all the existing deals and businesses. The enormous stack of documents on the table when he spoke shows just how many deals and business there are.”
The federal ethics official also decried the delay in Cabinet nominees completing nondisclosure forms.
“I need to talk about ethics today because the plan the president has announced doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the past four decades has met,” Shaub told reporters at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday evening.
The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday evening announced it has postponed the confirmation hearing for Trump’s commerce secretary nominee, Wilbur Ross, to Jan. 18. The confirmation hearings for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for education secretary, was also pushed back after she failed to meet her paperwork deadline.
Director Shaub’s remarks today at the @BrookingsInst can be viewed at: https://t.co/4JX7kOyG6B
— U.S. OGE (@OfficeGovEthics) January 11, 2017
