On Monday, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, Obama donor Walter Shaub, Jr., was admonished by a bipartisan group of Congressmen for using his non-partisan office as a platform to attack President Donald J. Trump.
Lawmakers from both parties criticized Shaub for using his official Twitter account and otherwise making comments attacking Trump over his plans to settle ethics concerns with his connections to his business empire.
Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Walter Shaub’s tweets and comments were inappropriate and serve to compromise the objectivity of the ethics office, the Associated Press reported.
Early in January, Shaub attacked Trump’s plans to satisfy ethics concerns as “wholly inadequate.” In further comments, Shaub demanded that Trump completely divest from his businesses.
Utah Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, reported that Shaub was an Obama donor. The ethics official gave $250 to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, according to donor records.
Chaffetz called Shaub’s comments “highly unethical.”
Even Maryland Democrat Representative Elijah Cummings said he was troubled by Shaub’s misuse of his office.
“When he did that, it didn’t seem professional,” Cummings said after the committee met with Shaub.
Chaffetz said he felt Shaub got the message being sent by both Democrats and Republicans that his actions were untoward. For his part, Shaub insisted that the meeting was “extremely useful.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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