Trump DOJ Assigns Sensitive Ethics Powers to Political Aides; Bloomberg Law, February 16, 2025

Ben Penn, Bloomberg Law; Trump DOJ Assigns Sensitive Ethics Powers to Political Aides

"The Trump Justice Department has assigned politically appointed newcomers decisionmaking power over sensitive matters, including ethics, employee discipline, and release of information sought by inspectors general and Congress, stripping these authorities from the longstanding oversight of a senior career official.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, in a Jan. 27 memo reviewed by Bloomberg Law, handed the authorities to two of his staffers — one a former criminal defense lawyer for President Donald Trump and another a 2021 law school graduate...

Delegating such weighty tasks to political aides — both first-time DOJ employees — without a career official’s involvement is a dramatic departure from past practice."

Ethics Column: When to Recuse or Disclose?; American Bar Association (ABA), December 30, 2024

Hon. W. Kearse McGill , American Bar Association (ABA); Ethics Column: When to Recuse or Disclose?

"When judicial recusal should occur is a perilous topic to discuss these days; in fact, to describe it as perilous may even be an understatement given recent public attention on this topic.  As judges, most of us will become quite anxious if we are hearing a case where our impartiality could be questioned.  What should we consider when this issue presents itself?

As a starting point, we can consider the ethical concept that underpins the issue of recusal or disqualification (while recusal is a judge’s sua sponte withdrawal from a case and disqualification is removal based on a party’s motion or required by statute, both terms are often used interchangeably).  A judge’s ethical duty to recuse arises from the duty to act impartially, which is based in our understanding of procedural due process as a constitutional principle." 

Trump administration asks US Supreme Court to remove order blocking firing of ethics agency head; Jurist news, February 17, 2025

 Sean Beeghly | U. Pittsburgh School of Law, US, Jurist news; Trump administration asks US Supreme Court to remove order blocking firing of ethics agency head

"The Trump administration prepared an application on Sunday asking the US Supreme Court to remove a lower court order blocking the firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel. The request argued the order was “an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrant[ed] immediate relief.”...

The Office of Special Counsel was created in 1979 to serve as “a secure channel for federal employees to blow the whistle by disclosing wrongdoing.”"

Appeals court rejects Trump in showdown over firing of ethics watchdog; Politico, February 16, 2025

JOSH GERSTEIN and KYLE CHENEY, Politico ; Appeals court rejects Trump in showdown over firing of ethics watchdog

"A divided federal appeals court panel has again turned down President Donald Trump’s request to follow through with his effort to fire a federal official from a post overseeing enforcement of workplace protections for federal employees.

In an order released late Saturday night, a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voted, 2-1, not to disturb a temporary restraining order a lower court judge issued preventing Trump from moving forward with the removal of Office of Special Counsel chief Hampton Dellinger, an appointee of President Joe Biden."

Trump fires Office of Government Ethics chief; The Hill, February 10, 2025

BRETT SAMUELS, The Hill; Trump fires Office of Government Ethics chief

"President Trump has fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the agency announced Monday.

The office posted on its website that it had been notified Trump was removing David Huitema, who had been nominated by former President Biden. He was confirmed last November by the Senate to a five-year term and officially started the job in December."

Ethics Pledges by Trump Cabinet Draw Questions and Skepticism; The New York Times, February 1, 2025

 Eric Lipton, The New York Times; Ethics Pledges by Trump Cabinet Draw Questions and Skepticism

"A total of 467 separate conflicts that require recusal, meaning at least temporarily the official cannot handle certain matters, have been identified in 15 of these ethics letters filed so far by senior Trump administration officials or those pending confirmation, according to a tally by Campaign Legal Center.

The largest number of these recusal requirements will be imposed on Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street financier and the nominee for Commerce Department secretary, who at least initially must refrain from being involved in certain matters involving 106 different corporate entities.

To outside ethics lawyers, this is a minefield of potential problems, and reason to be apprehensive, given that during Mr. Trump’s first term, several of his cabinet members failed to honor ethics promises they made to avoid actions that benefited their families or financial interests...

Richard Painter, who served as a White House ethics lawyer during President George W. Bush’s tenure and has written a book on federal ethics policies, said that he expects that the second term of Mr. Trump will feature even less compliance with ethics rules.

“The tone of this administration is going to be a lot more confrontational to the norms of government than even the first Trump administration,” he said, pointing to the recent firing of the inspectors general and the lack of an ethics memo, like every president since Mr. Obama has issued. “It is discouraging. Very discouraging.”"

Trump’s firing of independent watchdogs raises concerns about government fraud and ethics; PBS News, January 27, 2025

Laura Barrón-López , Shrai Popat, PBS News; Trump’s firing of independent watchdogs raises concerns about government fraud and ethics

"In another sweeping move of his second term, President Trump fired more than a dozen inspectors general, the non-partisan watchdogs appointed to protect against abuses of power, waste and mismanagement across federal agencies. White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López discussed the impact with Glenn Fine, former inspector general for the Department of Justice."

Career US Justice Department official in charge of public corruption cases resigns; Reuters, January 27, 2025

Sarah N. Lynch , Reuters; Career US Justice Department official in charge of public corruption cases resigns

"Corey Amundson, the U.S. Justice Department's senior career official in charge of overseeing public corruption and other politically sensitive investigations, resigned on Monday after the Trump administration tried to reassign him to a new role working on immigration issues, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

"I am honored and blessed to have served our country and this department for the last 23 years," Amundson wrote in his letter to Acting Attorney General James McHenry.

"I spent my entire professional life committed to the apolitical enforcement of the federal criminal law and to ensuring that those around me understood and embraced that central tenet of our work," Amundson said.

Amundson is one of an estimated 20 career officials inside the Justice Department who was reassignedlast week to a new Sanctuary City Working Group inside the Associate Attorney General's office."

The Power of Three: Civility, Professionalism, and Zealous Advocacy; ABA Journal, November 5, 2024

 Jeanne M Huey, ABA Journal; The Power of Three: Civility, Professionalism, and Zealous Advocacy

"Balancing Civility, Professionalism, and Zealous Advocacy

 The “power of three” reminds us that civility, professionalism, and zealous advocacy are not competing ideals but instead work together to define our duty to our clients, our duty to the justice system, and our duty to respect others, which is the mark of effective lawyering. Zealous advocacy without civility leads to unproductive conflict, while civility without zeal risks losing sight of the client’s interests. Professionalism embraces both, ensuring that civility and advocacy serve the client and the justice system. A balanced commitment to all three creates a steady, resilient structure that upholds a lawyer’s duty to serve their client’s best interests within the rule of law."

Trump’s Friday night massacre is blatantly illegal; The Washington Post, January 25, 2025

Ruth Marcus, The Washington Post;  Trump’s Friday night massacre is blatantly illegal

"Contempt for law. Contempt for Congress. Contempt for oversight. That is the lesson of President Donald Trump’s Friday night massacre of at least 15 inspectors general — most of them appointed by Trump himself in his first term.

The blatantly illegal action is troubling in itself — nonpartisan inspectors general play a critical role in assuring the lawful and efficient operations of government, in Democratic and Republican administrations alike. An administration supposedly focused on making government more efficient would be empowering inspectors general, not firing them en masse.

But this episode is even more alarming than that. It offers a chilling foreshadowing of Trump unbound, heedless of the rule of law and unwilling to tolerate any potential impediment to his authority."

Trump has canceled Biden’s ethics rules. Critics call it the opposite of ‘drain the swamp’; AP, January 22, 2025

WILL WEISSERT, AP ; Trump has canceled Biden’s ethics rules. Critics call it the opposite of ‘drain the swamp’

"Donald Trump took office eight years ago, pledging to “drain the swamp” and end the domination of Washington influence peddlers.

Now, he’s opening his second term by rolling back prohibitions on executive branch employees accepting major gifts from lobbyists, and ditching bans on lobbyists seeking executive branch jobs or vice versa, for at least two years.

Trump issued a Day 1 executive order that rescinded one on ethics that former President Joe Biden signed when he took office in January 2021.

The new president also has been benefitting personally in the runup to his inauguration by launching a new cryptocurrency token that is soaring in value while his wife, first lady Melania Trump, has inked a deal to make a documentary with Amazon."

‘BREACH OF PROTOCOL’: SENATORS STILL DON’T HAVE ETHICS FILINGS FROM TRUMP NOMINEES; Rolling Stone, January 13, 2025

ANDREW PEREZ, NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ , Rolling Stone; ‘BREACH OF PROTOCOL’: SENATORS STILL DON’T HAVE ETHICS FILINGS FROM TRUMP NOMINEES

"Confirmation hearings for a slew of Donald Trump’s picks for his Cabinet and other high-ranking positions are scheduled to begin this week. Senate committees still have not received vetting materials for several nominees, and many of their financial disclosures and ethics disclosures have not yet been made public."

The ethical implications of President-elect Trump's call with Justice Alito; NPR, January 9, 2025

Michel Martin, NPR; The ethical implications of President-elect Trump's call with Justice Alito

"Alito and Trump spoke Tuesday, a day before the president-elect urged the Supreme Court to halt his Jan. 10 sentencing in the New York hush-money case, the justice said in a statement from the court. They did not discuss the case, however, Alito said.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

Donald Trump spoke with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Tuesday, just hours before the president-elect asked the top court to block his sentencing over his New York hush money case. Alito said in a statement that the two of them did not discuss the case or any others involving Mr. Trump or potentially involving him. Gabe Roth joined me earlier to talk about this development, which was first reported by ABC News. Mr. Roth founded Fix the Court. His group advocates for ways to make the federal courts more open and accountable to the public. Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

GABE ROTH: Good morning.

MARTIN: So let me give a picture of the call, as we understand it. Justice Alito said in a statement that one of his former law clerks asked him to take a call from Mr. Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position, in essence, to give him a job reference. What do you make of it?

ROTH: I mean, well, it's obviously an unmistakable breach of protocol. You have an individual and the president-elect, who is petitioning the Supreme Court related to his sentencing in the hush money case, a Supreme Court justice, who, frankly, should know better. This conversation should not have taken place. And someone like Will Levi, the man in question who's looking for a credential, he has plenty of other credentials. He worked for Mike Lee. He could have Mike Lee call. He could - he's worked - he's been a partner in the law. His dad's a former federal judge. His grandfather was the attorney general. So, you know, it doesn't make sense from his perspective, and it's just - this episode shows the justices don't really care about the ethics because they know that no one's going to stop them from doing whatever it is that they want to do.

MARTIN: Have any ethical rules or laws been broken here, to your knowledge?

ROTH: Laws - I don't see any laws having been broken, but, you know, there are certain protocols that if you are a Supreme Court justice, you really don't intermingle with the executive branch or the incoming executive branch. I mean, maybe you attend the State of the Union speech that happens every year, though Justice Alito famously stopped attending that. But generally, the two branches don't intermingle - and especially at a time when President Trump, we know, is going to have all these executive orders coming down the pike whose fate will be decided by the justices. This, to me, just seems like an opportunity for him to have an audience before one of the nine people determining his and his administration's fate in so many of these issues...

It's all self-enforcing and self-policing. So that is really, you know, sort of what the challenge is for people like me and other people who care about the ethics of our highest court is - how do you get the justices to act in a way that is sort of consistent with what most people would believe are their ethical responsibilities?"

Alito Spoke With Trump Shortly Before Supreme Court Filing; The New York Times, January 8, 2025

Adam Liptak, The New York Times ; Alito Spoke With Trump Shortly Before Supreme Court Filing

"Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke with President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, not long before Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to delay his sentencing following his conviction in New York in a case arising from hush money payments.

Justice Alito said the call was a routine job reference for a former law clerk whom Mr. Trump was considering for a government position.

It was not clear, however, why Mr. Trump would make a call to check references, a task generally left to lower-level aides.

Gabe Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court, an advocacy group that seeks more openness at the Supreme Court, said the call was deeply problematic given the ethics controversies swirling around the court in general and Justice Alito in particular."

“BadAss Grandmas” Pushed for an Ethics Commission. Then the North Dakota Legislature Limited Its Power.; North Dakota Monitor, ProPublica, January 6, 2025

Jacob Orledge, North Dakota Monitor, ProPublica ; “BadAss Grandmas” Pushed for an Ethics Commission. Then the North Dakota Legislature Limited Its Power.

"Fed-up North Dakotans, led by a group of women calling themselves the BadAss Grandmas, voted to amend the constitution and establish a state Ethics Commission six years ago. Their goal was to investigate and stop unethical conduct by public officials.

But the watchdog agency has achieved less than the advocates had hoped, undermined in large part by the legislature the commission is charged with overseeing, an investigation by the North Dakota Monitor and ProPublica has found."

Exclusive: New US ethics czar starts vetting incoming Trump officials; Reuters, January 5, 2025

Heather Timmons and Gabriella Borter , Reuters; Exclusive: New US ethics czar starts vetting incoming Trump officials

"The top U.S. ethics official charged with preventing government workers' conflicts of interest is about to take the hotseat in Washington, as President-elect Donald Trump's new Cabinet and other appointees declare their financial assets and prepare for their new jobs.

"We are in touch with the transition team and working with them," said David Huitema recently when he sat down with Reuters for his first official interview since being sworn in for the job on Dec. 16. The inauguration will be Jan. 20."

Judiciary won’t refer Clarence Thomas, Ketanji Brown Jackson to DOJ over ethics; The Hill, January 3, 2025

ZACH SCHONFELD , The Hill ; Judiciary won’t refer Clarence Thomas, Ketanji Brown Jackson to DOJ over ethics 

"The federal judiciary’s policymaking body will not refer allegations that Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson violated federal ethics laws to the Justice Department.

In identical letters sent Thursday to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who requested investigations into Thomas over ProPublica reports about free trips he accepted, the Judicial Conference raised questions about whether it even had the legal authority to make the referrals."

Chief Justice John Roberts Thinks You're Stupid And He's Probably Right; Above The Law, January 2, 2025

JOE PATRICE, Above The Law; Chief Justice John Roberts Thinks You're Stupid And He's Probably Right

"As Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts prepares a year-end report, ostensibly to communicate with the American people — or Congress — about the state of the federal judiciary and his vision for the branch’s future. His approach this year is to condescend to the public while ignoring every useful area of inquiry about the court system.

Because he thinks everyone is too stupid to care...

More likely, this is a bid to undermine the public’s faith in legal analysis. The public doesn’t necessarily appreciate how much obfuscation exists in rulings by design let alone when a judge affirmatively tries to muddy the waters. When a court tries to say “oh, we didn’t really do what the analysts are saying, we decided it on standing!” the public relies on legal analysts to cut through this nonsense and explain what they’ve actually done...

America should demand more from a Chief Justice. But it won’t."

Overcoming AI’s Nagging Trust And Ethics Issues; Forbes, December 28, 2024

Joe McKendrick, Forbes ; Overcoming AI’s Nagging Trust And Ethics Issues

"Trust and ethics in AI is what is making business leaders nervous. For example, at least 72% of executives responding to a recent surveyfrom the IBM Institute for Business Value say they “are willing to forgo generative AI benefits due to ethical concerns.” In addition, more than half (56%) indicate they are delaying major investments in generative AI until there is clarity on AI standards and regulations...

"Today, guardrails are a growing area of practice for the AI community given the stochastic nature of these models,” said Ross. “Guardrails can be employed for virtually any area of decisioning, from examining bias to preventing the leakage of sensitive data."...

The situation is not likely to change soon, Jeremy Rambarran, professor at Touro University Graduate School, pointed out. “Although the output that's being generated may be unique, depending on how the output is being presented, there's always a chance that part of the results may not be entirely accurate. This will eventually change down the road as algorithms are enhanced and could eventually be updated in an automated manner.”...

How can AI be best directed to be ethical and trustworthy? Compliance requirements, of course, will be a major driver of AI trust in the future, said Rambarran. “We need to ensure that AI-driven processes comply with ethical guidelines, legal regulations, and industry standards. Humans should be aware of the ethical implications of AI decisions and be ready to intervene when ethical concerns arise.”

Matt Gaetz v the ethics committee; The Economist, December 23, 2024

The Economist; Matt Gaetz v the ethics committee

"On december 23rd a congressional committee released a lurid 37-page report alleging ethical misconduct by Matt Gaetz, the former maverick member of the House of Representatives who briefly stood as Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney-general. In a different time the investigation’s details about illicit sex and drug use would definitively end Mr Gaetz’s political career, and perhaps it will now. Yet he could soon test how far deviance has been defined down in America’s norm-smashing political era."