Executive Ethics

The nation’s top intelligence officer is ducking questions this morning about whether President Trump asked him to declare publicly that there’s no evidence that the Trump for President campaign colluded with Russian agents attempting to disrupt last year’s U.S. election.

The White House move to block the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) from collecting waivers granted by Trump Administration nominees to work in fields where they recently lobbied is an outrage and part of a disturbing pattern. OGE was created in the wake of the Watergate scandal to monitor ethics compliance, but the Trump Administration is denying it the ability to do so. The OGE is charged with ensuring government compliance with ethical standards and it must be allowed to perform that duty.

The Trump administration is walling off more information from public scrutiny, telling the government’s internal ethics watchdog to stop asking for copies of ethics waivers the president has issued to former lobbyists now working for federal agencies.

The conduct of President Trump alleged in media reports appear to represent the commission of a felony by Donald Trump. If true, The New York Times report that President Trump asked FBI Director James Comey to end the agency’s investigation of Michael Flynn would constitute obstruction of justice which is an impeachable offense. The accusations must be fully investigated by an independent commission and a special prosecutor.

New revelations about the circumstances around President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey demand that the investigation add possible obstruction of justice to the list of potential crimes committed by the President and his staff.

In a letter sent today to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Common Cause joined with twenty-three groups and individuals with expertise in government integrity and accountability to express deep concern about President Trump’s inappropriate firing of FBI Director James Comey yesterday.