In a letter (pdf) to the White House on Thursday, the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) warned that a top Trump administration ethics official may have violated the very rules he is required to enforce by allowing billionaire investor Carl Icahn—who has frequently advised President Donald Trump on a variety of issues—to skirt financial disclosure requirements.
“No one has believed for months that this president or his administration had any interest in ethics.”
—Noah Bookbinder, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Concerns of a possible violation were initially raised in a recent letter (pdf) sent to Stefan Passantino, Trump’s designated agency ethics official, by five Democratic senators.
The letter—signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) Thomas Carper (D-DE), Elijah Cummings (D-MD), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT)—noted that the “White House has treated Mr. Icahn as an informal advisor, allowing him to avoid complying with basic standards that apply to other federal employees, such as requirements to disclose conflicts of interest or divest from financial assets that pose potential conflicts.”
The senators continued:
The letter went on to highlight as particularly alarming the fact that Passantino had worked for Icahn in the past, which “raises obvious conflict of interest questions about his potential role as the official responsible for approving and enforcing Icahn’s ethics requirements.”
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