WASHINGTON: Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet choices have not completed a full review to avoid conflicts of interest, the government’s ethics office says, even as Republican senators move quickly to hold at least nine confirmation hearings this week.
In a letter to Senate leaders, the director of the Office of Government Ethics described the current status of several nominees, some of whom are billionaires and millionaires, in the ethics process and expressed concern about the lack of ethics reviews just days from committee hearings.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of Walter Shaub’s letter.
“During this presidential transition, not all of the nominees presently scheduled for hearings have completed the ethics review process. In fact, OGE has not received even initial draft financial disclosure reports for some of the nominees scheduled for hearings,” Shaub wrote to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
A copy of the letter also was provided to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Republicans are intent on getting as many of Trump’s choices through the arduous confirmation process as quickly as possible so his team will be in place soon after Trump takes the oath of office Jan. 20. Democrats have complained the GOP is moving too fast and that they lack information about some of the wealthiest Americans to serve a president.
Schumer said in a statement Saturday that the letter “makes crystal clear that the transition team’s collusion with Senate Republicans to jam through these cabinet nominees before they’ve been thoroughly vetted is unprecedented.”
The forms in question are financial disclosures certified by the ethics office and also written ethics agreements between the nominee and the office that identify potential conflicts of interest and the ways in which the nominee will resolve those conflicts. They are required by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, passed after the Watergate scandal.
Aides to the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations committees said they had received the ethics forms for Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, and Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state.
Shaub did not list which of Trump’s Cabinet choices hadn’t turned in their disclosures.