Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said Wednesday that President Trump is lowering the standard for the ethical requirements of office holders.
“There’s a lot of ethical considerations, and there’s a lot of conflicts of interests,” Mr. Shaub said on CNN. “It also sets a tone problem because you need to set a strong ethical tone from the top. Tone is everything in government ethics because your appointees follow you.
“I don’t know why the president is held to a lower standard,” he said.
Mr. Shaub said that Mr. Trump moving fundraisers to his hotels or country clubs, while also increasing membership fees, gives the appearance of profiting from his office.
“It gives the appearance of profiting from the presidency,” Mr. Shaub said.
He added that despite Mr. Trump’s disclosure meeting the legal requirements, there are likely many assets and holdings the office still doesn’t know about.
“I don’t think we understand what is underneath all the holding requirements. We had to certify the report because it was good enough for the disclosure report to meet the legal standard,” Mr. Shaub said.
Mr. Shaub resigned from his post recently as a result of Mr. Trump’s questionable ethics. He said he felt the ethics office was not being taken seriously by the Trump administration.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
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