Statement by Kedric Payne on Whether the Trump Administration Will Skip Office of Government Ethics Investigations for his Cabinet Nominees

Washington, D.C. — In response to the apparent lack of ethics reviews of Cabinet nominees, Kedric Payne, Vice President, General Counsel and Senior Director for Ethics at Campaign Legal Center and former Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics, issued the following statement: 

“Those nominated by the president-elect to help lead this next administration will hold immensely privileged positions of power if confirmed. That is why the Office of Government Ethics is tasked with meticulously reviewing the nominee’s financial holdings and any potential conflicts of interest they pose before they can be considered for Senate confirmation. 

"Without this crucial review — which is mandated by law — nominees may enter office with conflicts of interest (obvious or hidden) that they are not ordered to remedy. If this occurs, not only are Americans deprived of critical information about those poised to hold immense power, but those powerholders could manipulate the government for their own personal benefit while facing little to no consequence. 

"We are less than six weeks away from Inauguration Day, and it is incredibly alarming that the incoming administration has not begun what is typically a month's long transition process. Trump may be attempting to have confirmation hearings happen before ethics investigations are completed. 

"When Trump’s first term nominations approached confirmation hearings without a completed ethics investigation, we relied on Senators pushing back and postponing confirmation until the rule of law was followed. But we do not seem to have the same resistance to his power this time around — Trump may very well try to usher his appointments through without any sort of ethics review process at all.

"This is not just a break from precedent — Trump is breaking the law and setting a dangerous tone for the role that accountability and ethics will play in this next administration if the nominees are not reviewed for conflicts of interest. If we do not bother to hold some of the most politically powerful members of our government to ethical guidelines before they even enter office, there is little hope that these leaders will bother with ethics guidelines throughout their public service.”