Washington, DC. In efforts that sound strangely like “draining the swamp” the Trump Administration did not put up a fight to the release of information on lobbying activity by government officials now in service of US corporations and foreign powers.
Both the Trump and Obama administrations have had ethics policies, signed by each president, that prohibit newly hired government officials from handing particular matters they worked on in the private sector for two years. If the new government hires were formerly lobbyists, they are normally prohibited from working on the same issue for two years.
Donald Trump unexpectedly backed down Friday in a confrontation with the government’s top ethics officer, announcing he will publicly disclose waivers that have been handed out since January to let certain former lobbyists work in the administration.
White House or agency waivers which are issued by each federal government agency, and by the White House on a case by case basis, allow political appointees to ignore those ethics policies. Which explains how large numbers of former Obama Administration officials are running all over Washington with suitcases full of Ukrainian cash corrupting American congressmen and Senators.
It is impossible to know how many of these waivers have been issued across the federal government, which has about 4,000 political appointees who would be subject to ethics rules issued by President Trump. Meanwhile the swamp continues to stink from the stench of American corruption.