Senate confirms Director of Office of Government Ethics just in time to be a bulwark against corruption

Good afternoon from Washington, where I’ve been spending much of the past week reflecting on what has happened and what’s yet to come. Thanks to everyone who has subscribed and become a member.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of some important, good news that is likely to be overshadowed by the furor over President-elect Trump’s nomination of unfit nominees: by a vote of 50-46, the Senate just confirmed David Huitema to be the Director of the Office Government Ethics for a 5-year term.

Once he’s in office, Trump may fire Huitema, but for the next 67 days he will work to enature presidential nominees disclose and divest from their conflicts of interest in order to avoid even the appearance of corruption when they’re in public service.

As Eric Katz reports, an ethics void is already a key issue for the presidential transition.

Bringing Huitema’s role more into the foreground is Trump’s decision to so far refuse to sign agreements with the Biden administration, and the ethics agreements that go with them, that enable a formal presidential transition to take place. Absent those agreements, Trump’s teams have been unable to deploy into agencies and receive briefings from career staff.

Trump’s refusal to sign these ethics agreements has meant his transition has not had to be transparent about donors, but there’s a deeper issue: he hasn’t submitted a legally mandated ethics plan yet, either.

While Trump should disclose his taxes and divest from his many conflicts of interest, federal ethics laws do not require him to do so — and he did not in his first term.

As a result, Trump was the most corrupt President in American history, presiding over the most corrupt administration in over two centuries. He was impeached for corruption, took emoluments in defiance of the Constitution’s anti-corruption clauses, and is poised to do so again.

But his nominees are not exempt from federal ethics laws. Getting an OGE Director in place to ensure that the national security nominees are better was crucial.

Many thanks to Craig Holman and Public Citizen for leading coalition efforts to urge Senator Schumer to bring Huitema up to a vote — as he did today.

I believed it was important enough to sign on to a letter to that effect, which I include below.

A fully functioning OGE is crucial during a transition and the first months of a new term, as hundreds of appointees seek confirmation. As they say, “public service is a public trust.”

It won’t be enough to prevent corruption in the Trump White House or across the agencies, but I am certain that the institution and the people in it will function as intended until next January 20, acting as a bulwark against corruption.

Afterwards, I expect the next administration will give White House officials waivers and condone violations of our Constitution and enacted statutes that will undermine the rule of law — because that all happened last time.

But good news is good news: celebrate the wins.

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