RandomGuy
11-24-2017, 08:08 AM
Top Trump staffers failed to file financial reports on their way out the door
WASHINGTON
Several of President Donald Trump’s top aides — including former chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka — have failed to file legally required financial reports after they were dismissed this summer, according to the White House.
Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff, filed his report this week, according to a White House official, after McClatchy requested his form multiple times and reached out to him for comment. Priebus left the administration in late July, and the filing came well beyond the 30-day deadline for filing these reports.
In total, at least four senior White House staffers have not filed termination reports, which outline their financial activity while serving in the White House. They include Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who served as senior director for intelligence programs for the National Security Council for seven months, and Middle East adviser Derek Harvey, who served on the National Security Council for six months, according to the White House and the Office of Government Ethics.
A spokesman for Bannon, Arthur Schwartz, said in an email that Bannon did file, but he did not provide timing on when Bannon did so. White House records, however, on Wednesday show that Bannon still had not filed.
Government observers have long complained that the administration has failed to make ethics a priority by allowing officials, including Trump son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner, to retain certain business interests, turn in financial disclosure forms late and spend money at the president’s hotels and resorts.
“It is fairly obvious that there is a general lack of respect for the ethics laws and the values they represent that starts at the top of the administration,” said Larry Noble, senior director, ethics and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center. “It is seen in the president’s conflicts of interest, actions and statements, the number of times Jared Kushner has had to amend his ethics reports and the conflicts of interest that plague many of the president’s appointees.”
Since the start of the term, a flurry of staffers have left the White House, many who were ousted by Trump, as he has tried to respond to a series of problems, including infighting, a lack of legislative achievements and multiple investigations into Russian connections to his presidential campaign team.
Federal law requires certain executive branch employees to file termination reports within 30 days if they have worked for more than 60 days. The reports provide information about potential conflicts of interest that existed when the staffer was employed by the government and any arrangements the staffer had for future employment once leaving the government. The attorney general could take civil or criminal action if a staffer fails to file. Filing a report late is punishable by a $200 fee.
Bannon, for example, was supposed to sell his $1 million to $5 million stake in the company Cambridge Analytica while he served in the administration as part of his ethics agreement but it’s unclear whether he sold the stake.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article186003568.html
WASHINGTON
Several of President Donald Trump’s top aides — including former chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy assistant to the president Sebastian Gorka — have failed to file legally required financial reports after they were dismissed this summer, according to the White House.
Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff, filed his report this week, according to a White House official, after McClatchy requested his form multiple times and reached out to him for comment. Priebus left the administration in late July, and the filing came well beyond the 30-day deadline for filing these reports.
In total, at least four senior White House staffers have not filed termination reports, which outline their financial activity while serving in the White House. They include Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who served as senior director for intelligence programs for the National Security Council for seven months, and Middle East adviser Derek Harvey, who served on the National Security Council for six months, according to the White House and the Office of Government Ethics.
A spokesman for Bannon, Arthur Schwartz, said in an email that Bannon did file, but he did not provide timing on when Bannon did so. White House records, however, on Wednesday show that Bannon still had not filed.
Government observers have long complained that the administration has failed to make ethics a priority by allowing officials, including Trump son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner, to retain certain business interests, turn in financial disclosure forms late and spend money at the president’s hotels and resorts.
“It is fairly obvious that there is a general lack of respect for the ethics laws and the values they represent that starts at the top of the administration,” said Larry Noble, senior director, ethics and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center. “It is seen in the president’s conflicts of interest, actions and statements, the number of times Jared Kushner has had to amend his ethics reports and the conflicts of interest that plague many of the president’s appointees.”
Since the start of the term, a flurry of staffers have left the White House, many who were ousted by Trump, as he has tried to respond to a series of problems, including infighting, a lack of legislative achievements and multiple investigations into Russian connections to his presidential campaign team.
Federal law requires certain executive branch employees to file termination reports within 30 days if they have worked for more than 60 days. The reports provide information about potential conflicts of interest that existed when the staffer was employed by the government and any arrangements the staffer had for future employment once leaving the government. The attorney general could take civil or criminal action if a staffer fails to file. Filing a report late is punishable by a $200 fee.
Bannon, for example, was supposed to sell his $1 million to $5 million stake in the company Cambridge Analytica while he served in the administration as part of his ethics agreement but it’s unclear whether he sold the stake.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article186003568.html