Executive Ethics

Today, Common Cause filed a complaint with the office of Government Ethics and the U.S. Department of State calling for an investigation into the latter’s publication of an article promoting Mar-a-Lago, which the article refers to as the ‘Winter White House’ owned and operated by President Trump as a private club. The ethics complaint concerns an article the State Department’s ShareAmerica website published profiling the history of the Trump property and describing the Palm Beach club—which doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 after his election—in glowing terms. The article was subsequently circulated by multiple U.S. embassies, including on the website of the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom and on the Facebook page of the U.S. Embassy in Albania. Federal ethics rules prohibit government employees from endorsing “any product, service or enterprise.”

The House Oversight Committee has requested information from President Trump’s lawyer concerning the “implementation and timing of the Trump Organization’s announced plans to donate profits of foreign government payments to the U.S. Treasury.” The U.S. Constitution forbids government officers from receiving emoluments (gifts or money) from foreign governments and officials. The Trump Organization announced the plan in January but has offered no supporting materials to date.

Media outlets are reporting that a number of federal agencies are withholding information from Democrats in Congress and in some cases informing them that federal agencies will only provide information requested by committee chairs.

With "Hold Power Accountable" on one side and "People. Action. Democracy." on the other side of blue signs, our fierce band of Common Causers stuck together in Bryant Park for the Tax March on Saturday, April 15th.

A new report by The New York Times and ProPublica details how the Trump administration is stocking federal agencies “with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants."

Donald Trump is charged with doing the people’s business, but by keeping his visitors logs a secret, the people will have no idea who he is doing business with at the White House. This move is just the latest example of a disturbing Trump Administration pattern of withholding from the public information regarding everything from the president’s personal business dealings and tax returns to his late night White House visitors like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. With unprecedented conflicts of interest for a U.S. President, Trump should be working to restore public confidence, and his abysmal public approval ratings, by making his Administration more transparent, not less so.