Pema Levy for Mother Jones. … Continue reading
Category Archives: conflict of interest laws
KC Star: No law requires Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach to recuse himself from a recount in the governor’s race, but legal and political experts say that he should to maintain trust in the election. Republican legislative leaders said … Continue reading
WaPo: Activist groups in Georgia are calling on Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp to step down as secretary of state, a post that includes responsibility for overseeing the state’s elections. Kemp, through his campaign spokesman, has said he will not … Continue reading
NYT: A lawsuit accusing President Trump of violating the Constitution by maintaining a financial interest in his company’s Washington hotel cleared a critical hurdle on Wednesday when a federal judge allowed the case to move forward. In the first judicial opinion to … Continue reading
Release: A new report released today by Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) called, “All Expenses Paid: How Leadership PACs Became Politicians’ Preferred Ticket to Luxury Living”reveals how many federal lawmakers continue to exploit loopholes and lax enforcement to tap their leadership PAC funds … Continue reading
NYT: A federal judge on Monday sharply criticized the Justice Department’s argument that President Trump’s financial interest in his company’s hotel in downtown Washington is constitutional, a fresh sign that the judge may soon rule against the president in a … Continue reading
WaPo: The Senate Ethics Committee said Thursday that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who avoided conviction in a federal corruption trial last year, violated federal law and Senate rules in accepting unreported gifts from a friend and political ally whom Menendez … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Common Cause release. … Continue reading
NYT: That type of arrangement — appointments go out, campaign cash comes back in — has vexed government reformers in Albany for generations. Things were supposed to change in 2007, when Eliot L. Spitzer, then the newly elected governor, issued … Continue reading
CNN reports. … Continue reading
NYT: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration is reinterpreting its reinterpretation. In the five days since The New York Times reported that Mr. Cuomo had construed an executive order to enable himself to collect roughly $890,000 in campaign money from his appointees to … Continue reading
AP: A statement released by the Trump campaign attributed to White House senior adviser Jared Kushner Tuesday is in seeming violation of federal law prohibiting the use of official titles in political work.. … Continue reading
CPI reports. … Continue reading
Great reporting from John Myers for the LAT: For three years, Lehane and Fabiani served as directors of Main Street American Values — an organization with no staff and a low public profile. In every year the nonprofit made donations, … Continue reading
WSJ: The hearing Wednesday marked the first public airing of arguments over the scope of the provisions and the definition of an “emolument.” Democrats in Congress and the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland filed similar lawsuits … Continue reading
NYT: Donald J. Trump, Defendant” has graced reams of court papers through decades of dealmaking and New York real estate litigiousness. “Donald J. Trump, in his official capacity as President of the United States of America” remains a relatively new … Continue reading
Roll Call: A recent panel discussion about alleged governmental corruption in Ukraine, organized by lobbyist and former Rep. Connie Mack, has raised questions about the appropriate uses of meeting rooms under the House speaker’s jurisdiction. It also offers a glimpse into … Continue reading
Dan Weiner: The reality is that, notwithstanding anything OGE says, federal law contains broad prohibitions against bribery, conflicts of interest, and similar misconduct. Any government official or employee who uses her position to benefit a donor to her legal defense … Continue reading
Politico: The U.S. Office of Government Ethics has quietly reversed its own internal policy prohibiting anonymous donations from lobbyists to White House staffers who have legal defense funds. The little-noticed change could help President Donald Trump’s aides raise the money … Continue reading
CPI reports: A review of mandatory personal financial disclosure forms filed by all current members of the House and Senate reveals at least 19 have accepted loans from organizations or moneyed individuals instead of a bank or traditional financial institution. Often, … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
NYT: About a week after leaving his old firm, Mr. Lewandowski started a new consulting business, according to corporate filings. And now, as he takes on an increasingly broad role as an unofficial White House adviser, he is building a … Continue reading
CPI: In an arrangement prominent ethics experts say is without precedent and potentially illegal, the White House is referring questions for senior presidential adviser Stephen K. Bannon to an outside public relations agent whose firm says she is working for free. … Continue reading
WaPo: The U.S. Postal Service engaged in widespread violations of federal law by pressuring managers to approve letter carriers’ taking time off last fall to campaign for Hillary Clinton and other union-backed Democrats, investigators said Wednesday. High-level postal officials had … Continue reading
Bob Bauer at Lawfare. … Continue reading
NYT: Actions by President Trump and his administration have created a historic ethics crisis, the departing head of the Office of Government Ethics said. He called for major changes in federal law to expand the power and reach of the … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for Bill Moyers. … Continue reading
Opinion. … Continue reading
Release: Today Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) supplementing a complaint filed by Common Cause on Monday. The expanded complaint alleges … Continue reading
Blackman and Tillman in the NYT oped section. … Continue reading
WaPo: n an interview, Shaub said he was not leaving under pressure, adding that no one in the White House or the administration pushed him to leave. But the ethics chief said he felt that he had reached the limit of … Continue reading
Release: Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a formal Hatch Act Complaint against Kris Kobach who appears to have violated the Hatch Act in connection with his role as Vice Chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. … Continue reading
Meredith McGehee oped. … Continue reading
Brennan Center: What would the president’s tax returns show about his financial ties to foreign powers or other ethical issues? Is there a better way than disclosure of tax returns to get at such information? New Brennan Center analysis explores … Continue reading
WaPo: Nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress agreed to file a lawsuit Wednesday against President Trump alleging that by retaining interests in a global business empire he has violated constitutional restrictions on taking gifts and benefits from foreign leaders. The … Continue reading
Joshua Matz in The Guardian: The legal response to Trump’s emoluments clause violations has taken shape more slowly. And understandably so: until recently, most Americans had never heard of “emoluments”. Only in the past few months – aided by creative … Continue reading
Bloomberg on this DOJ brief: George Washington did it, so Donald Trump can too. That’s the Justice Department’s take on why the 45th president isn’t violating the U.S. Constitution by accepting payments for goods and services from foreign governments without congressional … Continue reading
NYT: Dan Scavino Jr., the White House director of social media, violated a federal law that prohibits political activity by government employees, the federal agency empowered to enforce the law has concluded, citing the tweet Mr. Scavino sent in April … Continue reading
Politico: At least a half-dozen former lobbyists are working in President Donald Trump’s White House even though they haven’t received waivers from the administration’s ethics rules, raising questions about how much the rules do to prevent conflicts of interest. … Continue reading
NYT: The Trump administration may have skirted federal ethics rules by retroactively granting a blanket exemption that allows Stephen K. Bannon, the senior White House strategist, to communicate with editors at Breitbart News, where he was recently an executive. The … Continue reading
Eric Lipton for the NYT: The White House unexpectedly backed down Friday in a confrontation with the government’s top ethics officer, announcing it will publicly disclose waivers that have been quietly handed out since January to let certain former lobbyists … Continue reading
Issue One report. … Continue reading
Matea Gold for WaPo: But in a May 17 letter, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, questioned whether the Office of Government Ethics has legal jurisdiction to get information about waivers that have been granted. He … Continue reading
Eric Lipton for the NYT: The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block an effort to disclose the names of former lobbyists who have been granted waivers to … Continue reading
Important guest post from Brian Svoboda over at Bob Bauer’s blog. Bob’s intro: My colleague Brian Svoboda, an expert in congressional ethics, has written an insightful commentary on how we might think about the ends and design of effective congressional … Continue reading
Bauer blogs. … Continue reading
NYT: The federal government’s top ethics officer is challenging the Trump administration’s issuance of secret waivers that allow former lobbyists to handle matters they recently worked on, setting up a confrontation between the ethics office and President Trump. The move … Continue reading
WaPo: Two new plaintiffs — an association of restaurants and restaurant workers, and a woman who books banquet halls for two D.C. hotels — plan to join a lawsuit alleging that President Trump has violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause because … Continue reading
Bauer blogs. … Continue reading