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Also see: Ryan Zinke;
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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 --
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
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
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 --
January 15:
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
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
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/
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
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.
-- 2019 --
-- 2020 --
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