UNPRECEDENTED: Trump’s Cabinet Picks To Get Hearings Without Completing Ethics Reviews

U.S. Ethics Office Sounds Alarm In Letter To Democratic Senators 

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) raised red flags Saturday about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees being rushed through the confirmation process without completing ethics reviews. 

Walter Shaub Jr., the director of the OGE, said in a letter to Democratic senators that it would be unprecedented for the Senate to hold confirmation hearings for nominees who haven’t been fully vetted by his office, according to The Washington Post. The Senate is set to begin confirmation hearings for several of Trump’s cabinet picks on Tuesday, which Shaub said could leave them with “potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues.”

“As OGE’s director, the announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,”  Shaub wrote to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “This schedule has created undue pressure on OGE’s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews. I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process.” 

Earlier, MSNBC reported that the OGE has struggled to gain access to Trump’s transition team. The network obtained emails from Shaub to Trump aides in which he lamented that despite repeated outreach, “we seem to have lost contact with the Trump-Pence transition since the election.” Shaub also warned Trump aides that they would be risking “embarrassment for the President-elect” by announcing cabinet picks without allowing OGE to review their financial information. 

Schumer said in response to Shaub’s letter Saturday that the OGE’s concerns make “crystal-clear that the transition team’s collusion with Senate Republicans to jam through these Cabinet nominees before they’ve been thoroughly vetted is unprecedented.” 

“The Senate and the American people deserve to know that these Cabinet nominees have a plan to avoid any conflicts of interest, that they’re working on behalf of the American people and not their own bottom line, and that they plan to fully comply with the law,” Schumer said. “Senate Republicans should heed the advice of this independent office and stop trying to jam through unvetted nominees.”​