NYTimes: White House Moves to Block Ethics Inquiry Into Ex-Lobbyists on Payroll

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Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, in his office on Monday.
The White House has challenged Mr. Shaub’s authority to demand information on former lobbyists now working for the government.
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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 work in the White House or federal agencies.

The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.

Mr. Shaub returned a scalding, 10-page response to the White House late Monday, unlike just about any correspondence in the history of the office, created after the Nixon Watergate scandal.

“O.G.E. declines your request to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive,” Mr. Shaub wrote in a letter he also sent to every federal agency ethics officer, six members of Congress who oversee government operations and the inspector generals from agencies governmentwide. “Public confidence in the integrity of government decision making demands no less.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-government-ethics-lobbyists.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. So does Trump fire Walter Shaub now?

[spanone]

4. who do these people think they are?

the mob has taken over our government

[Alice11111]

2. Some Repubs may get this real news, since Fox ratings

are dropping. Wow, I'm glad Shaub made a very strong response, to agencies broadly. Respect.

Trump would fire, unless Ivanka or his lawyers can talk him out of it. He is even an inept criminal. Today, he publicly announced in Israel that he didn't mention Israel's name when he gave up info to the Russians.

[Ilsa]

3. Yeah, like there's no way anyone would guess it was Israel, except

for almost everyone on DU.