Chaffetz Demands Ethics Chief Testify In House Following Criticism Of Trump

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah., gestures as he speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2013, during the committee's hearing to investigate the ext... House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah., gestures as he speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2013, during the committee's hearing to investigate the extra scrutiny IRS gave to Tea Party and other conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) MORE LESS
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Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to the director of the Office of Government Ethics on Thursday demanding that he sit for an interview with the committee about his public statements on Donald Trump.

Chaffetz’s letter follows public remarks from the office’s director, Walter Shaub Jr., during which he criticized Trump’s plans to separate himself from his business as inadequate. But the letter did not mention that speech. Chaffetz focused on a series of tweets published by the Office of Government Ethics in November praising Trump for divesting, even though the President-elect had not made any such announcement, and encouraging Trump to make a clean cut from his business when he takes office. The tweets also revealed that the ethics office had discussed divestiture with the Trump transition team.

In his letter, Chaffetz said he was concerned that the Office of Government Ethics was “blurring the line between public relations and official ethics guidance.” He said that the tweets about Trump’s plans to address potential conflicts of interest were confusing since they made it unclear whether the office approved of Trump’s plans.

The oversight chair also mentioned comments the office made in 2015 about paid speeches given by Hillary Clinton, criticizing the office for commenting on a situation that the office had not fully investigated.

Chaffetz noted in the letter that the Oversight Committee has the authority to shut the ethics office down and asked Shaub to sit for an interview by the end of January.

In a Thursday interview with Politico, Chaffetz criticized Shaub’s public statements.

“He seems to be acting prematurely at best, without doing investigations or thorough looks,” Chaffetz said. “He’s rendering opinions publicly that really cause you to scratch your head. We need the Office of Government Ethics to act ethically. Ironically, that’s not what they’re doing.”

Chaffetz told Politico that Shaub has not agreed to a meeting requested by the Oversight Committee since the election and threatened to subpoena Shaub.

“He is coming in. This is not going to be an optional exercise,” Chaffetz said.

“We need a fair person behind the plate that’s going to call balls and strikes,” he added. “What they’re supposed to do is help work with somebody to comply with the ethics requirements. But when you talk publicly about private conversations, that’s not ethical. And when you refuse to come in and talk to the committee when you’re doing reauthorization, when you start tweeting and issuing press statements on things you never looked at, that shouldn’t be the case at all.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Stalin would be proud.

  2. The response to any criticism of Trump has been to threaten. Proof positive the new Trump regime is under the thumb of Putin.

  3. If there is anyone incapable of recognizing unethical behavior it is the wholly unethical little Jason Shittfitz.

    The big question, really, is whether Shittfitz will be unveiling the new and, as he will characterize them, much needed lèse-majesté laws before or after he’s finished threatening Mr. Shaub.

    (Maybe I’m just being paranoid but I feel like little Shittfitz is somehow trying to subtly dissuade me from introducing my new Comrade Coir Coif Coronation Caps®.)

  4. Sure, Jason “Benghazi” Chaffetz is the one to lead an ethics investigation.

  5. I thought the word from the Temple in SLC was that Trump was bad, and Chaffetz ignores this? Jason is being bad. What he should pay attention to are the rampant, unconstitutional and illegal conflicts that Trump seems to think can get away with.

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