ethics
FREE NEWS LINKS

photo of U.S. Capitol Building  
      HOME 
  SEARCH

Updates & changes ongoing ....

---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.

Also see: Ryan Zinke; environment; ethics; interior; lying; comments;

        
Jump to:  2017;   2018;   2019;   2020; 

Undated: Ethic / Ethics ...
the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic


-- 2016 --

June 29: In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt. It is simply reporting the news that [for example] a lawsuit has been filed ... and ideally putting the complaint in context. Unproven allegations are just that - unproven, and should be identified that way. ...  Proof comes later, at trial. But [in our political situation] the November election will come well before any trial. And while Mr. Trump is presumed innocent, we are permitted — no, we are obligated — to analyze [a] case’s viability ....
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html

November 16: ... presidents do not have any legal obligation to put their financial holdings in a blind trust or to detach themselves from their financial interests in any way.

As" president, Trump will have to comply with financial disclosure requirements, however, and it's possible he is constrained by a clause in the Constitution regarding income from foreign governments.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/nov/16/rudy-giuliani/giuliani-president-trump-will-be-exempt-conflict-i/

-- 2017 --

Back to top


February 7: [Democrats] expressed their concern ... about the potential for conflicts of interest in [Education Secretary Mrs. Devos'] complex web of financial investments; [she] was the first of Mr. Trump’s nominees not to complete an ethics review before appearing before senators.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmation.html?_r=0

May 15: Chinese Investors Only Love Jared Kushner’s Company Because They Think Trump Will Give Them Visas

“The Trump ties are the attention grabber and the biggest selling point,” a property developer named Wang was quoted as saying.“No one mentioned Trump in today’s event, but everyone knows [Jared] Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law.”

By dealing with the Kushners, the investors are said to be eyeing EB-5 visas. Under the new U.S. program, immigrants who invest more than $500,000 in projects that create American jobs will be granted access to green cards for themselves and their families.
https://nextshark.com/chinese-investors-love-jared-kushners-company-think-trump-will-give-visas/

May 16: In January, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington [CREW], a government watchdog group, filed a lawsuit claiming Trump violates the clause because he is accepting payments from foreign governments through his business empire. ... But the federal government ruled in March that the hotel is not violating its lease, despite a clause that says no government official can be a party to it. The GSA determined that the financial trusts and legal arrangements that Trump set up to manage his businesses have ensured that he will not get any money from the hotel while he is in office.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/politics/trump-hotel-projection/index.html

May 22: The Office of Government Ethics has rejected a White House attempt to block the agency's compilation of federal ethics rules waivers granted to officials hired into the Trump administration from corporations and lobbying firms. ... With an ethics waiver, a federal official is free to act on matters that normally would trigger concerns about conflicts of interest or other ethical problems. Federal regulations say the waivers generally should be made public on request. The Obama administration routinely posted waivers online. The Trump administration has issued an unknown number and released none.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/22/529502156/white-house-moves-to-block-disclosure-of-ethics-waivers-for-trump-appointees

May 22: Last winter, [Office of Government Ethics director Walter M.] Shaub used Twitter to exhort Trump into putting his hundreds of corporations into a blind trust. Trump instead put them into a revocable trust, where he can draw money from his businesses whenever he wants.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/22/529502156/white-house-moves-to-block-disclosure-of-ethics-waivers-for-trump-appointees

Back to top


July 6: Walter Shaub, director of the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE), is expected to step down from his post later this month, according to a post on his personal Twitter account.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/government-ethics-chief-clashed-trump-resigns/story?id=48476914

July 14: How Trump Broke the Office of Government Ethics
https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-lizza/how-trump-broke-the-office-of-government-ethics

July 18: How to Restore Government Ethics in the Trump Era
The outgoing director of the Office of Government Ethics on how to handle the president's departure from existing ethical norms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/opinion/walter-shaub-how-to-restore-government-ethics-in-the-trump-era.html

September 18: Trump’s Ethical Nightmare Is Only Getting Worse ... A new report sheds light on the changing clientele of the president’s eponymous real-estate empire.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/09/trump-organization-ethical-concerns

September 23: Former official "fought as good of a fight as I could" to make Trump White House follow ethics rules

The consensus was clear at a discussion by ethics experts at the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday: Donald Trump's White House may be the most unethical administration Americans have ever seen.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/09/23/former-top-ethics-official-says-he-fought-good-fight-i-could-make-trum/

October 3: US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley was warned on Tuesday that [she is in] violation of the Hatch Act [over a political retweet].

"This is already the third time this year that a senior Trump official has been reprimanded for misusing their official position ..." ... "This all stems from the President's permissive attitude toward ethics; the tone is set at the top."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/politics/nikki-haley-hatch-act-violation/?iid=ob_lockedrail_bottomlist

Back to top


October 3: ... the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which today concluded that Haley violated the Hatch Act, which restricts federal officials (excluding the president and vice president) from engaging in certain political activities to ensure federal resources aren’t used for solely political means ... OSC has concluded that Ambassador Haley violated the Hatch Act when she retweeted President Trump’s June 19 message about Ralph Norman on an account that repeatedly invoked her official position as Ambassador to the United Nations.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/10/3/16412644/nikki-haley-hatch-act-twitter-trump-rewteet

October 18: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims that because Trump refused to sell his business holdings before the inauguration, he's in violation of the statute. Payments from foreign entities to his hotels, clubs and restaurants, which some watchdogs say violate an anti-corruption measure in the Constitution [are at issue] ... For the case to move forward, the judge has to determine that one of the plaintiffs have been harmed by the president's business activity [CREW, a nonprofit restaurant group, a woman who books events at D.C. hotels, and a New York hotel and restaurant owner].
http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/18/news/trump-crew-emoluments-oral-arguments/index.html?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion

November 16: Who pays for Trump's contempt for ethics? USA. USA. USA.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/11/16/who-pays-trumps-contempt-ethics-usa-editorials-debates/676193001/

November 22: Former U.S. ethics official files complaint against Trump aide Conway ... a complaint claiming senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway violated a law barring executive branch employees from engaging in political activity when she spoke on television against a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-ethics/former-u-s-ethics-official-files-complaint-against-trump-aide-conway-idUSKBN1DM2JH

December 6: Trump and the Ethics of Foreign Aid ... What are the consequences of President Trump's decision to slash US aid to international NGOs that promote abortion?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2017/12/trump-ethics-foreign-aid-171205094358118.html

December 7: A former director of the Office of Government Ethics announced Thursday that he is filing a second ethics complaint against White House counselor Kellyanne Conway over Conway's repeated statements about the Alabama Senate race.

Walter Shaub said that he would file his second complaint against Conway in a month after he says she appeared to violate the Hatch Act with her statements against Democrat Doug Jones, who is running against controversial GOP candidate Roy Moore for Alabama's Senate seat.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/363895-ex-ethics-director-to-file-second-ethics-complaint-against-conway

December 13: Lawmakers Ask Ethics Agency To Look Into Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Trump ... Their letter comes after Republican congressional leaders pushed back on conducting an investigation.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawmakers-ethics-office-trump-sexual-misconduct-claims_us_5a31bf38e4b01bdd7659d616

-- 2018 --

Back to top


January 15:
Trump’s ‘Fake News Awards’ could violate ethics rules ... Little is known about what the president intends to do Wednesday, but some experts aren't taking it lightly.

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/15/trump-fake-news-awards-ethics-339183

January 16: Trump Leading the ‘Most Unethical Presidency’ in Modern History, Ethics Group Says in First-Year Review
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-unethical-presidency-history-782229

January 17: We Asked Ethics Experts About Trump’s Worst Abuses During His First Year In Office
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/trump-white-house-ethics-hotels-foreign-money/

February 3: Trump nominates new ethics office director ... Trump nominated Emory Rounds, a current associate counsel at the Office of Government Ethics, to head the independent agency, the White House announced in a statement. 
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/372844-trump-nominates-new-ethics-office-director

February 8: Trump stunned ethics experts with his surprising, 'excellent choice' to lead the government office that's been a huge thorn in his side
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ethics-emory-rounds-experts-thrilled-2018-2

February 14: Trump attorney's statement that he paid Stormy Daniels $130K raises ethics questions
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/trump_attorneys_statement_stormy_daniels

February 16: Ethics Be Damned: More than half of Trump's 20-person Cabinet has engaged in questionable or unethical conduct
https://www.marketplace.org/2018/02/16/world/ethics-be-damned-more-half-trumps-20-person-cabinet-has-engaged-questionable-or

February 16: Trump's Cabinet has been rocked by a number of ethics scandals — here's a complete guide
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/trump-cabinet-officials-in-ethics-scandals.html

February 18: Under Trump, America's religious right is rewriting its code of ethics ... From scorning immigrants to accepting the president’s profanity, evangelicals are proving just how flexible their values can be
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/18/donald-trump-evangelicals-code-of-ethics

February 19: Trump Jr.'s Dinners in India Raise Concerns ... His schedule includes dinners in at least two cities with buyers of Trump-branded apartments ...

Ethics experts have questioned President Trump's efforts to separate himself from his businesses, saying a pledge that the Trump Organization will not sign any new deals while he is in office is not enough to avoid potential conflicts of interest.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/19/investing/donald-trump-jr-india-dinner-gurgaon-kolkata/index.html

January 18: Norman L. Eisen, the co-chairman of CREW and a former Obama ethics adviser, called the Indian developers’ offer “outrageous.”

“They are auctioning off access to the first family in a foreign land. What is to stop a foreign national with interests before the U.S. government from purchasing a flat, or tagging along with someone who did, simply to ask Don Junior to raise some issue or concern with his father?” Eisen said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/trump-towers-buyers-in-india-offered-chance-to-meet-donald-trump-jr-raising-ethics-concerns/2018/01/18/53c6829c-fb8c-11e7-9b5d-bbf0da31214d_story.html?utm_term=.b7323d8ebd33

Back to top


April 6: Trump: EPA chief Pruitt 'doing great job but is totally under siege'

Pruitt has been criticized for a sweetheart deal on a condo rental, lavish travel expenses and big pay raises for top aides.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-epa-chief-pruitt-doing-great-job-totally-under-siege-n863361

May 9: Scott Pruitt is becoming more paranoid and even less transparent.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly taking drastic steps to make sure no more negative stories are published about his alleged unethical behavior and wasteful spending at the agency. These include tightly monitoring public records requests from journalists and shutting out the majority of EPA employees—even previously trusted political staffers that Pruitt himself had appointed.
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/148314/scott-pruitt-becoming-paranoid-even-less-transparent

May 16:
The Senate gave Scott Pruitt third-degree burns.

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator has shown a knack for verbal gymnastics, particularly in his handling of myriad ethics scandals. But he flopped on Wednesday while being grilled by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Democratic Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico asked Pruitt about reports that he ordered his motorcade to deploy lights and sirens to cut through D.C. traffic. “There are policies in place that govern the use of lights” that were followed to the best of my knowledge,” Pruitt replied. Asked again whether he ordered sirens, Pruitt said he did “not recall that happening.” Udall then revealed an internal EPA email in which Pruitt’s former head of security said Pruitt “personally encouraged” the use of sirens.

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/148442/senate-gave-scott-pruitt-third-degree-burns


May 25: President Donald Trump said the U.S. would allow Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker ZTE Corp. to remain in business after paying a $1.3 billion fine, changing its management and board and providing “high-level security guarantees.”

Under the deal for ZTE to resume operations, it will also hire American compliance officers to monitor its operations according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Once ZTE complies, the Commerce Department will lift an order under which the company had been cut off from U.S. suppliers including Qualcomm Inc., effectively shutting down its business.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/26/zte-fine-donald-trump-china/

Back to top


May 27: Optics and ethics are two words that simply are lacking in the Trump family lexicon.

We already knew President Donald Trump’s recent about-face on the Chinese telecom company ZTE—considered a national security threat by both Democrats and Republicans—was suspect. Shortly after Trump tweeted earlier this month that he was reversing policy on ZTE, news reports surfaced that the Chinese government had agreed to grant $500 million in loans to an Indonesian resort project that would directly enrich Donald Trump. The loan was announced just 72 hours before Trump tweeted his order to bail out ZTE from impending closure.

Now, the government ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is reporting that the Chinese government approved five trademark applications for Ivanka Trump’s businesses the same week Trump tweeted his pro-China reversal. Another trademark was approved the previous week. It’s probably just a coincidence.
https://splinternews.com/china-approved-more-ivanka-trump-trademarks-the-same-we-1826358991

July 12: A new bill aims to send masked Antifa activists to jail for 15 years

Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, tweeted about the bill on Tuesday, suggesting it advanced "authoritarianism."

"Two groups go to Charlottesville. A big group chants racist filth, wields semi-automatic assault rifles, fires a gun into a crowd & murders a woman with a car," he wrote. "A small group wears masks. It's the small group these Congressmen want to lock up for 15 years. Authoritarianism rises."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/12/us/unmasking-antifa-act-trnd/

August 11: Government Ethics In The Trump Administration
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/11/637780576/government-ethics-in-the-trump-administration

Back to top


November 30: A federal ethics agency is telling civil servants to avoid workplace talk about impeachment and #resistance for the next 705 days — until the day after Election Day 2020.

The memo from the Office of Special Counsel also warns federal employees not to engage in "strong criticism or praise of a presidential administration's policies and actions." The only presidential administration right now is President Trump's. The document was circulated to ethics officials across the government this week.
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/30/671954539/ethics-agency-warns-federal-workers-not-to-discuss-impeachment-or-resistance

December 15: “Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.” The president said he would name a replacement this coming week.

Mr. Zinke is the latest Trump official to exit an administration plagued by questions of ethical conflict. And his departure comes as Mr. Trump has begun a shake-up in his administration. In early November, the president fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and last weekend he announced that his chief of staff, John F. Kelly, was leaving.

In one of the final acts of Mr. Kelly’s tenure, his team told Mr. Zinke that he should leave by year’s end or risk being fired in a potentially humiliating way, two people familiar with the discussion said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/ryan-zinke-interior-secretary.html


-- 2019 --

Back to top




-- 2020 --

Back to top





 Webpage visitor counts provided by




 

 

copyr 2018 trump-news-history.com, Minneapolis, MN