White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that presidential aides had been granted a blanket waiver from the President Donald Trump’s ethics pledge in order to speak to news organizations “to continue having those discussions and advancing the President’s agenda and priorities.”
At a press briefing Friday, Spicer was asked about one aide specifically, Steve Bannon, and the news outlet he led before working for Trump, Breitbart News. Spicer answered without mentioning either specifically.
“Did White House have Steve Bannon’s communications with Breitbart News in mind?” one reporter asked of the ethics waiver. “Was that applied retroactively to address those communications?”
The reporter added: “And any response to Director [of the Office of Government Ethics Walter] Shaub’s claim that if you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule?”
“There’s two pieces to that that are important,” Spicer responded. “One is, remember, this didn’t have to do with the law or regulations. This had to do with the President’s pledge. His ethics pledge. He is the ultimate decider on that. This isn’t with respect to a law or regulation.”
He didn’t directly address Shaub’s criticism that the waiver had been retroactive. The White House’s disclosure did not say when it was granted.
Spicer continued: “What we discovered was that several individuals on staff had previously worked for media organizations, and in order to continue having those discussions and advancing the President’s agenda and priorities, it was important to make sure that all individuals had the opportunity to be able to speak to the media about what the President was doing to make the country stronger.”
In March, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an transparency group, argued that Bannon was violating the pledge by “repeatedly communicating about official matters with Breitbart News.”
The White House’s disclosure shows presidential appointees were granted a waiver from Paragraph 6 of Executive Order 13770, signed in Trump’s first week, which read: “I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.”
