The White House and the nation’s top ethics watchdog are battling over the disclosure of waivers the Trump administration has granted that allow lobbyists to work in government agencies. “OGE declines your requests to suspend its ethics inquiry and reiterates its expectation that agencies will fully comply with its directive by June 1, 2017,” Shaub wrote. But former White House ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, Richard Painter, told Fox News that Trump’s executive order was “silent” to public disclosure. “I don’t see any possible political or practical advantage from concealing the ethics waivers -- it’s a dumb thing to conceal, and if you conceal them, people immediately think the worst.”The White House told Fox News they had “no comment,” and directed questions on the matter to be referred to OMB. A spokesperson for Sen. Grassley told Fox News that he stands by his past position, breaking with the White House.

Source: Fox News May 24, 2017 15:57 UTC