Senate confirms Biden’s ethics czar, who will remain under Trump; Government Executive, November 14, 2024

 Eric Katz, Government Executive; Senate confirms Biden’s ethics czar, who will remain under Trump

"The Senate on Thursday confirmed President Biden’s nominee to serve as head of the Office of Government Ethics in a 50-46 vote, giving him a term that will last through President-elect Trump’s tenure. 

David Huitema, currently a State Department ethics official, will now serve in the governmentwide ethics czar role in a five-year term. Senate Democrats sought to prioritize his confirmation in the waning days of the Biden administration and their control of the chamber before Trump’s inauguration, as the former and future president once again brings with him to the Oval Office a bevy of potential conflicts of interest. 

Bringing Huitema’s role more into the foreground is Trump’s decision to so far refuse to sign agreements with the Biden administration, and the ethics agreements that go with them, that enable a formal presidential transition to take place. Absent those agreements, Trump’s teams have been unable to deploy into agencies and receive briefings from career staff. 

OGE has been without a confirmed director for more than a year, when Trump-appointee Emory Rounds’ term expired. Shelley Finlayson, chief of staff and program counsel at the ethics agency, has filled in on an acting basis. During his first term, Trump bypassed Finlayson in a period without a confirmed director to instead install another career official as acting director."

"Consequences are severe": Trump's lack of ethics pledge delays transition process; Salon, November 9, 2024

Griffin Eckstein , Salon; "Consequences are severe": Trump's lack of ethics pledge delays transition process

"The specific disclosures required of Trump by the October deadline were created in the wake of his first term. A 2019 amendment to the act created the requirement after Trump sparked bipartisan outrage by failing to mitigate conflicts during his presidency. Both President Joe Biden and Harris had filed the required plans by the deadline. Biden is barred from providing Trump with necessary clearances to sit in on certain briefings until Trump has fulfilled these requirements.

Still, Trump is slated to meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday, a routine part of the transition process that Trump did not afford Biden four years ago."

Trump Holds Up Transition Process Over Ethics Code; The New York Times, November 9, 2024

 Ken Bensinger, The New York Times; Trump Holds Up Transition Process Over Ethics Code

[Kip Currier: Incipit (It begins)...]

"President-elect Donald J. Trump has not yet submitted a legally required ethics pledge stating that he will avoid conflicts of interest and other ethical concerns while in office, raising concerns that his refusal to do so will hamper the smooth transition to power.

Mr. Trump’s transition team was required to submit the ethics plan by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act.

While the transition team’s leadership has privately drafted an ethics code and a conflict-of-interest statement governing its staff, those documents do not include language, required under the law, that explains how Mr. Trump himself will address conflicts of interest during his presidency.

Since Mr. Trump created his transition team in August, it has refused to participate in the normal handoff process, which typically begins months before the election.

It has missed multiple deadlines for signing required agreements governing the process. That has prevented Mr. Trump’s transition team from participating in national security briefings or gaining access to federal agencies to begin the complicated work of preparing to take control of the government on Jan. 20, 2025."