Mitch McConnell and Republicans have confirmed that they are not planning to follow standard ethics and review procedures for Donald Trump’s cabinet picks and now the Huffington Post is pointing out that at least 4 of the 9 Trump nominees that have hearings scheduled for this week haven’t yet completed their ethics disclosures.
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Billionaires don’t need to complete ethics reviews in Trump government
According to the Huffington Post story. “Senate confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks are set to begin just hours from now. But four of the nine Trump nominees scheduled for hearings this week still haven’t disclosed key financial information to the Office of Government Ethics, which is charged with making sure they don’t break federal ethics laws. Of the four nominees who had not submitted their ethics paperwork as of Monday afternoon, two of them ― Commerce Secretary-designate Wilbur Ross and Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos ― are billionaires who have never worked in government.”
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Office of Government Ethics says it would “be cause for alarm if Senate were to go forward with hearings”
Republican insistence to jam through all of Donald Trump’s nominees without proper ethics and background reviews is raising alarm bells around Washington and the department tasked with completing the reviews, the Office of Government Ethics is voicing concerns.
In a letter to Senators Schumer and Warren on Saturday the Director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub wrote, “The announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me.” Shaub went on to say that it would “be cause for alarm if the Senate were to go forward with hearings on nominees whose reports OGE has not certified.”
According to the Huffington Post, “Federal law requires presidential nominees to divest holdings that may conflict with their official duties. The OGE works with presidential transition teams to ensure that the incoming nominees avoid potential violations of criminal conflict-of-interest laws. This process “stops potential conflicts from becoming actual conflicts,” the agency tweeted on Thursday.”
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