PhotoWalter Shaub Jr. announced his resignation as director of the Office of Government Ethics on Thursday, plunging the federal government’s top ethics watchdog agency into limbo. President Trump now has the chance to appoint an accommodating loyalist who’d give him far less trouble than Mr. Shaub has. works with some 4,500 executive branch ethics officials whose goal is preventing conflicts of interest among 2.5 million civilian federal employees. Mr. Shaub and his team tried and failed to persuade Mr. Trump to sell off his businesses, a move required for his cabinet but not for the chief executive. Tighter rules requiring such separation are something that a new and independent ethics director could champion.

Source: New York Times July 07, 2017 07:18 UTC