Former president Donald Trump’s top ally in the Senate is working to block the appointment of the government’s top anti-corruption enforcer until after Inauguration Day — a tactic designed to give Trump the power to handpick his own ethics overseer if he wins the election.
In a move reminiscent of Republicans blocking President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation hearings until after the 2016 election, US senator Mike Lee (R-UT) recently declared in a Senate speech that the confirmation of a new ethics chief should not move forward until the election is decided. Lee took the opposite position when Trump had a chance to fill a Supreme Court seat in late 2020, demanding the appointment be made before that year’s election.
At issue is the top job at the US Office of Government Ethics, the federal agency responsible for monitoring compliance with federal anti-corruption laws, which has been vacant for over a year. The position — which is appointed to five-year terms so that it overlaps administrations — is critical during a presidential transition, since the office vets new White House appointees to make sure they comply with ethics laws.
That includes deciding whether the president and top White House officials must divest personal financial holdings to comply with laws prohibiting financial conflicts of interest in their government jobs. The office can also offer massive tax breaks to those who divest holdings.
If Trump appoints SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a post in his administration, an idea both men have floated, the Office of Government Ethics may find itself overseeing conflicts of interest for the world’s richest man, whose companies hold billions in government contracts. As the…
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Auteur: Katya Schwenk
