John,
I just wrote an op-ed for MSNBC about Donald Trump’s latest attack on ethical government—an attack that will harm everyday Americans in many concrete ways.
Here’s what happened: Donald Trump fired David Huitema, who was the head of the Office of Government Ethics. His job was to help to ensure that executive branch employees are making decisions based on the good of the public by policing financial conflicts of interest.
CREW is standing up for the American people by demanding that Trump not replace non-partisan watchdogs with MAGA loyalists. Can you pitch in to support this work?
OGE works to review financial disclosure forms of top appointees to ensure that they have divested from assets that could create conflicts of interest, and that former lobbyists recuse themselves from actions that affect their former clients.
The Trump administration is poised to be chock full of lobbyists and billionaires, including the former oil and chemical lobbyists he chose to help lead the EPA.
And without competent and independent leadership at OGE, these conflicts of interest will do direct and concrete harm to Americans.
Polluters could get away with not cleaning up a chemical spill because their former lobbyist now works at the EPA and looks the other way…
Credit card companies could continue offering products with predatory interest rates or onerous late fees because their former general counsel now works at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau…
The list goes on and on. Without a proper head of the OGE, there’s a lot less oversight to ensure that the public is not overpaying for government contracts to companies run by the president’s well-connected allies, for example.
But Trump isn’t just attacking OGE. He’s also attempted to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which protects merit-based civil servants and protects whistleblowers from retaliation; and he’s fired the chair of the Federal Election Commission, which works to keep illegal money out of elections and *18* inspectors general, whose jobs are to root out waste, fraud and abuse in government agencies.
Just to be clear: none of this is normal.
Government watchdogs are non-partisan officials, dedicated to protecting the best interests of the American people. But now Trump is firing officials like Huitema so they can be replaced with MAGA loyalists that could prioritize Donald Trump’s interests over the interests of the American people.
We can’t let him get away with it.
John, Trump’s tenure in government has been defined by serving himself and his cronies, often to the detriment of the American people. Make a donation to CREW today to help us fight for accountability →
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Thank you,
Donald Sherman
Executive Director
CREW
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