(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)But ethics experts and Democrats on Capitol Hill said the letter, by noting that the ethics office is up for reauthorization by Congress, was a veiled threat to slash its budget unless Shaub changes his rhetoric. [Federal ethics chief blasts Trump’s plan to break from businesses, calling it ‘meaningless’]“I want to talk about the whole department,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “He’s put ethics front and center on the policy agenda,” said Norm Eisen, who served as ethics counselor to Obama, on Thursday. His expertise in federal ethics conflicts is unchallenged, say those who have worked with him. “The timing is certainly perplexing.”The federal ethics office traditionally has kept such a low profile that some lawyers in the field had never heard of Shaub until he showed up on Twitter.

Source: Washington Post January 13, 2017 20:35 UTC