Transportation Secretary Duffy filmed a reality show, funded by firms he regulates; NPR, May 12, 2026

Rachel Treisman, NPR; Transportation Secretary Duffy filmed a reality show, funded by firms he regulates

"On Monday, the nonprofit government watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with Transportation's Office of Inspector General, accusing Duffy of violating federal gift and travel rules, and calling on the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General to investigate.

"You have everyday Americans who are struggling with the price of gas, struggling with the costs of everyday items, and you have the cabinet secretary announcing that he is going on a trip with his entire family, which appears to have been funded by the industries that his department is overseeing," CREW president Donald Sherman tells NPR...

As the trailer made the rounds on social media, many commenters asked how the trip was paid for. Some worried it was costing taxpayers, while others said its product placement — like the Toyota car, a Japanese brand, prominently featured in the video — raised questions of corruption. Sherman, of CREW, agrees.

"One has to wonder whether the decision to prominently feature Toyota in this project is because Toyota paid for a sponsorship or because the secretary actually thinks that promoting Toyota is in the best interest of the American public, American automakers and the people that work for that industry," he said."...

The Great American Road Trip Inc. describes itself as an independent nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization, "fully funding its own efforts to celebrate and share America's story." (An IRS database search did not yield any results for an organization by that name, and Barnes did not respond to NPR's requests for an identification number.)

The nonprofit's website lists over a dozen sponsors "powering America's road trip," most of which are in the travel or transportation industry. They include Toyota, Boeing and Royal Caribbean, which Sherman says have been subject to investigation — and in some cases, fines — by the Department of Transportation in recent years "and certainly could be in the future."

"[The nonprofit] has become a vehicle for providing access, to its sponsors, to a cabinet secretary, which should make everyday Americans who cannot pay for similar access really concerned," Sherman adds."

Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ Prompts Ethical Concerns; The New York Times, May 13, 2026

Karoun Demirjian, The New York Times; Duffy’s ‘Great American Road Trip’ Prompts Ethical Concerns

"On May 1, Sean P. Duffy was in New Orleans, touring its container terminals in his official capacity as the secretary of transportation.

Then, he climbed behind the wheel of a car with his family on the final, all-expenses paid stop for “The Great American Road Trip,” a slickly produced YouTube series that has raised questions about self-promotion and gifts his family may have accepted as he conducted official business as a prominent member of the Trump administration.

The series, filmed across 10 states and Washington, D.C., over the course of seven months, is part of the department’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States this year. But it doubled as a set of family excursions for Mr. Duffy, his wife and his children, who traveled to national parks and major landmarks paid for by Great American Road Trip Inc., a nonprofit that names among its sponsors Toyota, United Airlines and Boeing.

Mr. Duffy has said that ethics and budget officials in the department cleared the project. But the corporate ties — and the show’s timing, with gas prices rising — drew immediate blowback on social media when the trailer was released, announcing that it will air beginning in June. The average price of gas has gone up more than 40 percent since the war with Iran started in February."

Sean Duffy Slammed Over Road Trip Reality Show Filmed Over Seven Months; Forbes, May 10, 2026

Zachary Folk , Forbes; Sean Duffy Slammed Over Road Trip Reality Show Filmed Over Seven Months

"Speaking to “Fox and Friends” on Friday, Duffy, a former reality television star of MTV’s “The Real World” and “Road Rules: All Stars,” said he spent the last seven months intermittently filming a road trip reality television show with his wife, Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy.

The trip with some of their nine children is “a civic experience” to highlight destinations across the U.S. as part of the country’s 250th anniversary celebration, according to Duffy, who encouraged Americans to “gas up the car, pack up the kids, get behind the wheel and get out and see America.”

Duffy’s announcement was quickly met with criticism from Democrats and other online commentators—with Duffy’s predecessor Pete Buttigieg calling the show“ brutally out of touch” due to rising gas prices caused by disruptions in the oil market from the Trump administration’s war in Iran.

In response, Duffy insisted the program was funded by the Great American Road Trip nonprofit organization and that “zero taxpayer dollars were spent on my family.”

Duffy and Campos-Duffy, also a former “Real World” and “Road Rules” cast member, said the program was filmed in “short” production windows like weekends and their childrens’ breaks from school, and that their family would not receive a salary or royalties from the show."

Trump Says He Dislikes Prediction Markets. His Family Invests in Them.; The New York Times, April 24, 2026

 Ben Protess, The New York Times ; Trump Says He Dislikes Prediction Markets. His Family Invests in Them.

The White House has warned staff not to wager on government decisions, but his family’s involvement with these firms undermines the president’s message.

"When a U.S. soldier was indicted on Thursday on charges of using classified information to place prediction market bets, it seemed to confirm President Trump’s lament just hours before that “the whole world unfortunately has become somewhat of a casino.”

“I was never much in favor of it,” Mr. Trump said from the Oval Office, when asked about concerns that federal employees might be leveraging insider information on the prediction markets. “I don’t like it conceptually. It is what it is. I’m not happy with any of that stuff.”

Yet Mr. Trump and his family stand to profit from the very same industry.

The president’s publicly traded media company unveiled its own prediction market product last year. And the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., has ties to two of the industry’s top firms, including Polymarket, the platform that prosecutors say was used by the soldier for well-timed bets.

The result, ethics experts say, is a jarring juxtaposition between Mr. Trump’s public comments and his family’s private business."

Is Trump profiting off America's 250th? Ethics groups question merch; USA TODAY, April 2, 2026

Karissa Waddick , USA TODAY; Is Trump profiting off America's 250th? Ethics groups question merch

"Ethics groups point to the for-sale items as part of a growing list of evidence they say suggests the president is hijacking bipartisan plans for the milestone commemoration to benefit his personal interests."

Trump’s family is embroiled in a $500m UAE scandal. We’ve hardly noticed; The Guardian, February 6, 2026

Mohamad Bazzi, The Guardian ; Trump’s family is embroiled in a $500m UAE scandal. We’ve hardly noticed

"Days before Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, an investment firm controlled by a senior member of the United Arab Emirates royal family secretly signed a deal to pay $500m to buy almost half of a cryptocurrency startup founded by the Trump family. Under any other president, such an arrangement, which was revealedthis past weekend by the Wall Street Journal, would cause a political earthquake in Washington. There would be demands for an investigation by Congress, televised hearings and months of damage control.

But this latest example of corruption involving Trump and his family business hardly made a blip over the past few days, relegated to a passing headline in a relentless news cycle often dominated by Trump’s actions and statements.

This scandal deserves our attention: a half-billion-dollar transaction with a foreign government official, executed in the shadow of Trump’s inauguration, which directly enriched the president and his family. The deal to acquire a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto companyfounded by the Trump family and several allies in the fall of 2024 during Trump’s presidential campaign, was backed by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, one of the most powerful officials in the UAE. Known as the “spy sheikh”, Tahnoon is the brother of the UAE’s president and serves as national security adviser. He also oversees one of the largest investment empires in the world, serving as chair of two Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds, which have $1.5tn in assets, and G42, a firm focused on artificial intelligence.

It’s dizzying to keep up with the ways that Trump has monetized the presidency and used it for personal profit in his second term. The Trump Organization, run by the president’s sons, has negotiated foreign real estate deals worth billions of dollars, some of which involve private companies backed by governments of the three wealthiest Arab petrostates: Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. In May, as Trump prepared to visit the Middle East, Qatar’s government donated a $400m luxury Boeing jet, which is being refitted by the US military so Trump can use it as Air Force One. It was probably the most expensive gift from a foreign government in US history – and Trump has said the plane will be transferred to his presidential library when his term ends in 2029, meaning he could still use it after he leaves the White House."

'Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company; Wall Street Journal, January 31, 2026

Sam Kessler,  Rebecca Ballhaus, Eliot Brown, and Angus Berwick, Wall Street Journal; 'Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company

"Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration last year, lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with the Trump family to purchase a 49% stake in their fledgling cryptocurrency venture for half a billion dollars, according to company documents and people familiar with the matter. The buyers would pay half up front, steering $187 million to Trump family entities."

Another Trump Financial Conflict, This Time With Nuclear Power; The New York Times, December 19, 2025

Rebecca F. Elliott and Brad Plumer , The New York Times; Another Trump Financial Conflict, This Time With Nuclear Power

"A Trump-sponsored business is once again betting on an industry that the president has championed, further entwining his personal fortunes in sectors that his administration is both supporting and overseeing.

This one is in the nuclear power sector. TAE Technologies, which is developing fusion energy, said on Thursday that it planned to merge with Trump Media & Technology Group. President Trump is the largest shareholder of the money-losing social media and crypto investing firm that bears his name, and he will remain a major investor in the combined company.

The deal, should it be completed, would put Mr. Trump in competition with other energy companies over which his administration holds financial and regulatory sway. Already, the president has sought to speed up safety reviews of new nuclear power plants and lower thresholds for acceptable radiation exposure.

“Having the president and his family have a large stake in a particular energy source is very problematic,” said Peter A. Bradford, who previously served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the independent agency that oversees the industry."

Some Native Americans draw shocked response over contract to design immigration detention centers; AP, December 13, 2025

HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH, JOSHUA GOODMAN AND JOHN HANNA , AP; Some Native Americans draw shocked response over contract to design immigration detention centers

"The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, whose ancestors were uprooted by the U.S. from the Great Lakes region in the 1830s, are facing outrage from fellow Native Americans over plans to profit from another forced removal: President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. 

A newly established tribal business entity quietly signed a nearly $30 million federal contract in October to come up with an early design for immigrant detention centers across the U.S. Amid the backlash, the tribe says it’s trying to get out of it...

Tribal Chairman Joseph “Zeke” Rupnick promised “full transparency” about what he described as an “evolving situation.” In a video message to tribal members Friday, he said the tribe is talking with legal counsel about ways to end the contract. 

He alluded to the time when federal agents forcibly removed hundreds of Prairie Band Potawatomi families from their homes and ultimately corralled them on a reservation just north of Topeka.

“We know our Indian reservations were the government’s first attempts at detention centers,” Rupnick said in the video message. “We were placed here because we were prisoners of war. So we must ask ourselves why we would ever participate in something that mirrors the harm and the trauma once done to our people.”"

Trump’s $2 Trillion Plan to Cash in on Ukraine ‘Peace’ Leaks; The Daily Beast, November 29, 2025

Adam Downer , The Daily Beast; Trump’s $2 Trillion Plan to Cash in on Ukraine ‘Peace’ Leaks

[Kip Currier: Notice that there's no Trump 2.0 substantive discussion of human rights violations or accountability for Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, abduction of Ukrainian children (see 11/20/25 Euronews "Back from captivity: Ukrainian children abducted by Russia share their stories", attacks on churches, schools, and hospitals (see also 2023 National Library of Medicine (NLM) study "Attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities during the first year of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine"), and atrocities like the Bucha massacre in March 2022.]

[Excerpt]

"At the center of President Trump’s contentious plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war isn’t peace: it’s profit.

Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are negotiating with Russian officials to ensure U.S. businesses—and Trump’s friends—are in position to make a killing once the war ends, according to an exhaustive Wall Street Journal report published Friday...

Witkoff spoke to the paper about a future where Russia, the U.S., and Ukraine are all business partners. 

“If we do all that, and everybody’s prospering and they’re all a part of it, and there’s upside for everybody, that’s going to naturally be a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving,” Witkoff said...

Europe balked at President Trump’s 28-point peace plan—which Witkoff drafted based on a Russian plan— arguing it was overly generous to Russia. The deal had Ukraine concede territory and cut its military capacity, effectively neutering the nation’s sovereignty. The plan wasn’t popular in America either, as it received significant pushback from the GOP...

Though the Journal’s report details the many ways in which Americans and Russians could profit from an eventual peace deal, it’s unclear how Ukraine would benefit."

The Supreme Court’s Ethics Code Is a Joke. Big Oil Knows That.; The National Review, November 28, 2025

Aaron Regunberg , The National Review; The Supreme Court’s Ethics Code Is a Joke. Big Oil Knows That.

"I don’t have access to Big Oil’s internal emails about this. But they sure look wildly desperate to dodge the growing array of lawsuits over the damage caused by their decades-long scheme to deceive the public about climate change. Oil companies are doing whatever they possibly can to keep the plaintiffs in these suits (cities, counties, states, and Native American tribes) from having their day in court—and as some of the most powerful corporations in the world, there’s a lot they can do. They’re pushing Congress to pass a blanket waiver of liability for climate-related damages. They’ve deputized the Trump administration to threaten states that are bringing suits. And they have tried—again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again—to get the Supreme Court to step in and dismiss the cases against them, based on an often contradictory set of legal theories claiming that the state laws they’re being sued under are preempted—i.e., nullified by federal law.

Big Oil has tried five times since 2021 to get the Supreme Court to step in and dismiss these lower court cases, and so far the court has rejected them all. But now the industry is trying once again, petitioning the justices to take up a case filed by the City and County of Boulder against ExxonMobil and Suncor. Last spring, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that, after seven long years of delay tactics by the industry, this case could finally advance to discovery and trial...

What do judicial ethics codes have to do with climate deception? It all comes down to simple math. Every year, the Supreme Court receives many thousands of cert petitions. To grant a writ of certiorari, four of the nine justices must agree to take one of these cases. Given that lower threshold, any time a justice recuses themselves based on conflicts of interest it reduces the likelihood that a case will be heard. In this case, multiple justices have conflicts of interest that should take them out of the running to consider these suits—if such principles matter to the Supreme Court’s Republican majority.

One of these conflicted justices is Amy Coney Barrett...

Another justice, Samuel Alito, has a more traditional conflict of interest: He owns thousands of dollars of stock in the oil giants ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66. Unlike Barrett, Alito has recused himself from considering most, though not all, of the fossil fuel industry’s previous climate deception cert petitions...

We are, after all, living in an age of elite impunity. More and more Americans are asking whether the wealthy and powerful can do whatever they want—even participate in underage sex trafficking—and get away with it. That’s the same question at the center of these climate deception cases: Can Big Oil knowingly destroy the livability of our one and only planet, yet face zero consequences for exposing untold numbers to financial ruin, death, and the chaos of increasingly likely civilizational collapse?...

Big Oil wants us to succumb to nihilism when it comes to climate change. Disappoint them: Don’t give in."

Trump Family’s Business Ties to Saudi Arabia Raise Ethics Worries; The New York Times, November 18, 2025

 Vivian Nereim, The New York Times; Trump Family’s Business Ties to Saudi Arabia Raise Ethics Worries

"The leveraging of political relationships for personal profit is ordinary in the Persian Gulf, where hereditary ruling families hold near-total power and the term “conflict of interest” carries little weight.

But the mixing of politics and profitmaking during President Trump’s second term has shattered American norms, shocking scholars who study ethics and corruption. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, engaging in sensitive national security talks with a foreign leader who also oversees a major construction project, known as Diriyah, that is in talks over a potential deal with the Trump family business.

Even if that deal never comes to fruition, the Trump family’s real estate and other business interests in Saudi Arabia have flourished during his second term."

CBS Cuts Trump’s Corruption Tantrum From ‘60 Minutes’ Edit; The Daily Beast, November 3, 2025

Cameron Adams , The Daily Beast ; CBS Cuts Trump’s Corruption Tantrum From ‘60 Minutes’ Edit

[Kip Currier: Read the transcript, some of which is excerpted below from CBS' transcript of an 11/2/25 60 Minutes interview by Norah O'Donnell. Staggering obfuscation and communication deficits by Trump.

If Trump truly doesn't know about this cryptocurrency billionaire he pardoned, that is appalling and incompetent conduct.

If he does know of him, he's not being truthful and/or transparent.

And given the known financial ties between Trump's family and the man he pardoned, a legitimate appearance of pay-for-play corruption exists.]

[Excerpt]

"NORAH O'DONNELL: Do I have the opportunity to ask you two more questions?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: If you want, if it helps-

NORAH O'DONNELL: Okay. Okay. Two more questions-

 PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: That means they'll treat me more fairly if I do- I want to get- It's very nice, yeah. Now is good. Okay. Uh, oh. These might be the ones I didn't want. I don't know. Okay, go ahead.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Is everybody ready?

NORAH O'DONNELL: This is a question about pardons. The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son- your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Helping to make your family millions of dollars. It's in that context that I do wanna ask you about crypto's richest man, a billionaire known as C.Z. He pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Right...

In the aired interview, O’Donnell asks Trump, “How do you address the appearance of pay-for -play?” To which he responded, “Well, here’s the thing, I know nothing about…”

However, when O’Donnell again asked if Trump was “concerned about the appearance of corruption” over pardoning CZ due to the links to his family, the transcript revealed the president became annoyed.

“I can’t say, because—I can’t say—I’m not concerned. I don’t—I’d rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, ‘Can I ask another question?’ And I said, yeah. This is the question... ”

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I can't say, because- I can't say- I'm not concerned. I don't- I'd rather not have you ask the question. But I let you ask it. You just came to me and you said, "Can I ask another question?" And I said, yeah. This is the question-"

DOJ faces ethics nightmare with Trump bid for $230M settlement; The Hill, October 31, 2025

REBECCA BEITSCH, The Hill; DOJ faces ethics nightmare with Trump bid for $230M settlement

[Kip Currier: This real life "nightmare" scenario is akin to a hypothetical law school exam fact pattern with scores of ethics issues for law students to identify and discuss. Would that it were a fictitious set of facts.

If Trump's former personal attorneys, who are now in the top DOJ leadership, will not recuse themselves due to genuine conflicts of interest and appearances of impropriety, will the state and federal bar associations, who license these attorneys and hold them to annual continuing legal and ethics-related education requirements so they can remain in good standing with their respective licensing entities, step in to scrutinize potential ethical lapses of these lawyers?

These unprecedented actions by Trump must not be treated as normal. Similarly, if Trump's former personal attorneys approve Trump's attempt to "shake down" the federal government and American taxpayers, their ethically dubious actions as DOJ leaders and officers of the court must not be normalized by the organizations that are charged to enforce ethical standards for all licensed attorneys.

Moreover, approval of this settlement would be damaging to the rule of law and to public trust in the rule of law. If the most powerful person on the planet can demand that an organization -- whose leadership reports to him -- pay out a "settlement" for lawfully-conducted actions and proceedings in a prior administration, what does that say about the state of justice in the U.S.? I posit that it would say that it is a justice system that has been utterly corrupted and that is not subject to equal application of its laws and ethical standards. No person is above the law, or should be above the law in our American system of government and checks and balances. Not even the U.S. President, despite the Roberts Court's controversial Trump v. U.S. July 2024 ruling recognizing absolute and limited Presidential immunity in certain spheres.

Finally, a few words about "speaking out" and "standing up". It is vital for those who are in leadership positions to call out actions like the ones at hand that arguably undermine the rule of law and incrementally move this country from one that is democratically-centered to an autocratic nation state like Russia. I searched for and could find no statement by the American Bar Association (ABA) on this matter, a matter that is clearly relevant to its membership, of which I count myself as a member.

Will the ABA and other legal organizations share their voices on these matters that have such far-reaching implications for the rule of law and our nearly 250-year democratic experiment?

The paperback version of my Bloomsbury book, Ethics, Information, and Technology, becomes available on November 13, and I intentionally included a substantial professional and character ethics section at the outset of the book because those principles are so integral to how we conduct ourselves in all areas of our lives. Ethics precepts and values like integrity, attribution, truthfulness and avoidance of misrepresentation, transparency, accountability, and disclosure of conflicts of interest, as well as recusal when we have conflicts of interest.]

[Excerpt]

"The Department of Justice (DOJ) is facing pressure to back away from a request from President Trump for a $230 million settlement stemming from his legal troubles, as critics say it raises a dizzying number of ethical issues.

Trump has argued he deserves compensation for the scrutiny into his conduct, describing himself as a victim of both a special counsel investigation into the 2016 election and the classified documents case.

The decision, however, falls to a cadre of attorneys who previously represented Trump personally.

Rupa Bhattacharyya, who reviewed settlement requests in her prior role as director of the Torts Branch of the DOJ’s Civil Division, said most agreements approved by the department are typically for tens of thousands of dollars or at most hundreds of thousands.

“In the ordinary course, the filing of administrative claims is required. So that’s not unusual. In the ordinary course, a relatively high damages demand on an administrative claim is also not that unusual. What is unusual here is the fact that the president is making a demand for money from his own administration, which raises all sorts of ethical problems,” Bhattacharyya told The Hill.

“It’s also just completely unheard of. There’s never been a case where the president of the United States would ask the department that he oversees to make a decision in his favor that would result in millions of dollars lining his own pocket at the expense of the American taxpayer.”

It’s the high dollar amount Trump is seeking that escalates the decision to the top of the department, leaving Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, as well as Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, to consider the request."

SUPREME COURT ETHICS ISSUES TRACE TO JOHN ROBERTS’ ‘ORIGINAL SIN,’ NEW BOOK ALLEGES; Rolling Stone, September 30, 2025

TESSA STUART , Rolling Stone; SUPREME COURT ETHICS ISSUES TRACE TO JOHN ROBERTS’ ‘ORIGINAL SIN,’ NEW BOOK ALLEGES

"The Hamdan case, Graves argues, was Roberts’ “original sin,” and one that goes a long way toward explaining why Roberts has failed so spectacularly as successive ethics scandals have engulfed the high court. “If you realize what he did to get the job — staying on that case that he had no business staying on, a case where the Supreme Court reversed him ultimately — I think that it reveals that we’ve placed false hope in Roberts being fair, and in Roberts not being motivated by his own desire for power.”"

Judge’s reopening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ raises ethical concerns; Prism, September 29, 2025

Alexandra Martinez, Prism; Judge’s reopening of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ raises ethical concerns

"A U.S. appeals court ruled on Sept. 4 to keep Florida’s controversial “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center operating while an appeal plays out, after a district court ruling to shut down the facility. The judge who authored the 2-1 majority opinion was 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Lagoa. 

Some immigrant rights advocates and local leaders argue that Lagoa’s role in overseeing the case, filed in part against Florida’s government, raises ethical concerns. Lagoa is married to attorney Paul Huck, a partner at Lawson Huck Gonzalez, one of Florida’s most politically connected conservative law firms. The firm is earning millions of dollars from contracts tied to the state’s other legal battles. The firm is not involved in the “Alligator Alcatraz” lawsuit."

Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures; The New York Times, August 28, 2025

Reed Abelson and Teddy Rosenbluth , The New York Times; Medicare Will Require Prior Approval for Certain Procedures

[Kip Currier: Does anyone who receives Medicare -- or cares about someone who does -- really think that letting AI make "prior approvals" for any Medicare procedures is a good thing?

Read the entire article, but just the money quote below should give any thinking person heart palpitations about this AI Medicare pilot project's numerous red flags and conflicts of interest...]

[Excerpt]

"The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections."

Ethics Panel Rebukes Congressman for Wife’s Stock Trade in Firm He Helped; The New York Times, July 25, 2025

Carl Hulse , The New York Times; Ethics Panel Rebukes Congressman for Wife’s Stock Trade in Firm He Helped

"The House Ethics Committee on Friday rebuked a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania and urged him and his wife to sell their holdings in a steel company in his district after a four-year investigation into a stock trade found that he had violated the House’s official code of conduct.

In its report, the committee cited Representative Mike Kelly, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, for a “lack of candor” in its inquiry into 2020 trades by his wife, Victoria, involving a local steel company that was seeking government intervention to prevent layoffs or the closure of its plant in Butler, Pa., in Mr. Kelly’s district.

Mr. Kelly was actively lobbying the Trump administration for trade protections for the plant, newly purchased by the company Cleveland-Cliffs, and learned that the Commerce Department was going to intervene in favor of the firm. The next day — five days before the Commerce action was made public — his wife purchased 5,000 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock. She later sold the stock at a nearly $65,000 profit, a roughly 285-percent gain.

Members of Congress are prohibited from using confidential information for financial benefit and must disclose transactions by them or close family members valued at more than $1,000, but efforts to tighten those rules or bar lawmakers from trading stocks altogether have so far been unsuccessful. That has created an environment rife with potential conflicts of interest, in which many lawmakers who are active in the stock market have unique insight into or influence over companies whose shares they are buying and selling."

Superman’s Other Secret Weakness? Journalism Ethics.; The New York Times, July 11, 2025

George Gene Gustines , The New York Times; Superman’s Other Secret Weakness? Journalism Ethics.

"If Superman’s greatest weakness is green kryptonite, then Clark Kent’s may well be the ethics of journalism — thanks to his work as a reporter who has to cover his own heroic alter ego. It is a conflict in the character apparent since his first comic book appearance."

WaPo Columnist Flames Jeff Bezos After Quitting in Protest; The Daily Beast, July 10, 2025

Corbin Bolies  , The Daily Beast; WaPo Columnist Flames Jeff Bezos After Quitting in Protest

"Davidson said in the Facebook post the spiked piece centered on what he believed was a hallmark of President Donald Trump’s second term, “his widespread, ominous attack on thought, belief and speech,” and referenced federal officials’ comments and Trump’s own executive orders. 

But the Post spiked the column, according to Davidson. He said he tried to write two more pieces to test his resilience under the new policy, but that he bristled when editors objected to his use of “well-deserved” when describing a potential pay raise for federal employees...

“Bezos’s policies and activities have projected the image of a Donald Trump supplicant. The result: fleeing journalists, plummeting morale and disappearing subscriptions,” Davidson wrote.

“Nonetheless, Post coverage of Trump remains strong,” he added. “Yet the policy against opinion in News section columns means less critical scrutiny of Trump—a result coinciding with Bezos’ unseemly and well-documented coziness with the president.”