President Donald Trump on Monday drew fierce criticism over his dismissal of David Huitema, the head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics who’d only officially been in the role for weeks.
Donald K. Sherman, the executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a statement that “by firing the head of the Office of Government Ethics, President Trump is continuing his purge of any independent officials tasked with holding him and his administration accountable to the law and ethical standards.”
“This follows his firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel and 17 inspectors general,” Sherman continued. “Together, these actions will streamline any efforts he and his administration make to personally profit, install loyalists and avoid oversight of corruption and waste.”
“By all indications, Trump is planning to run a lawless administration and these unprecedented moves are an alarming first step to put those plans into action,” Sherman added.
Caitlin MacNeal, from the Project on Government Oversight, described Huitema’s ouster from the independent agency (which, per government websites, “provides oversight, policy, and guidance to the Executive Branch regarding ethics laws and policies”) as just “the latest in a string of firings directly aimed at the accountability offices in the executive branch,” reported CBS News.
“The firings remove our systems of checks and balances at a time when the wealthiest man in the world is operating inside the government with vast and unprecedented financial conflicts of interest,” MacNeal said, referring to tech billionaire Elon Musk and his role leading the spending-slashing, non-official Department of Government Efficiency in Trump’s White House.
“So it’s particularly alarming that the administration has fired the official in specifically charged with policing ethics,” MacNeal added.
Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, asked on social media: “Are you seeing a pattern? Trump is systematically removing every form of accountability: Inspectors General, prosecutors and FBI agents, and now the Director of the Office of Government Ethics. Paving the way for Lyin’ Kash Patel to become his hatchet man.”
Other critics on social media agreed:
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