Tag: citizens for responsibility and ethics
Ivanka's Goya Foods Promo May Violate Ethical Standards Law

Ivanka's Goya Foods Promo May Violate Ethical Standards Law

First daughter Ivanka Trump could find herself in legal hot water after she posted a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans under the text of the food company's motto.

Ivanka Trump posted the photo to her Twitter account in support of the company, which has come under fire since Goya's CEO Bob Unanue praised Donald Trump at a White House event last week.

"Mr. President, what can I tell you? I'm so blessed to be here in the most prosperous country in the world, the greatest country in the world. And we're so blessed to have you as our leader, as we continue to build this country and make it — continue to make it the most prosperous nation in the world," Unanue said at the event, a so-called roundtable with Hispanic leaders on July 9.





According to the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch:

An employee shall not use his public office for his own private gain, for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise, or for the private gain of friends, relatives, or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity, including nonprofit organizations of which the employee is an officer or member, and persons with whom the employee has or seeks employment or business relations.

Ivanka Trump wouldn't be the first Trump administration official to violate this law.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was accused of violating the same law in 2017, when she promoted Ivanka Trump's fashion brand during an interview with Fox News in the White House briefing room.

"Go buy Ivanka's stuff is what I would say," Conway said. "I'm going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody; you can find it online."

Conway was never punished for the ethical breach, but then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Conway had been "counseled on the subject."

Conway has also violated the Hatch Act — a law barring federal employees from engaging in partisan politics in their official capacity — at least 50 times, according to a report issued by the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington last October.

But the Office of Special Counsel has refused to punish Conway for the violations, about which the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing in June 2019.

"Since OSC's decision in June, it has been very obvious from Conway's continuing violations that she considers herself to be above the law. The White House will not hold Conway accountable for her violations, and instead seems to be encouraging them," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington executive director Noah Bookbinder said in an October 2019 news release. "It is long past time for the abuses to stop."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

IRS In ‘Bunker Mentality’ As Interest Groups, Media Join Congress In Seeking Information

IRS In ‘Bunker Mentality’ As Interest Groups, Media Join Congress In Seeking Information

By Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Congress isn’t alone in trying to wrest answers out of the embattled Internal Revenue Service. The courts, public interest groups and the media are all struggling with uneven transparency and cooperation from the agency.

News that the IRS cannot produce long-sought emails is rekindling complaints that the agency has been slow to make public both policy documents regarding the special scrutiny of conservative groups and the emails of IRS decision-makers involved at the time.

Lawmakers are furious that the IRS failed to publicly disclose earlier that the woman at the center of the scandal, Lois Lerner, lost emails when her computer hard drive crashed in 2009.

That was news, too, for those involved in a lawsuit to force the release of Lerner’s emails. A federal judge Thursday will hear from the IRS as to why the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was not immediately informed about potentially missing emails.

The conservative organization Judicial Watch sued the IRS in May 2013 for access to Lerner’s emails, but it only learned of the missing emails after IRS Commissioner John Koskinen appeared before Congress last month.

“They’ve never once communicated to the court that that’s the case,” said Chris Farrell, research director for the group. “You have an ongoing lawsuit and no notification, that’s not generally how it’s done.”

The IRS has been ham-handed at best ever since the scandal erupted in May 2013. Anticipating an inspector general’s report, Lerner took a planted question at a legal conference so she could admit the agency had inappropriately targeted conservatives. Later, before Congress, she refused to answer any questions from lawmakers, citing her constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

As Congress more aggressively sought answers, the IRS simply stopped responding to media questions and information requests from public interest groups.

“I think they are in a greater bunker mentality as this (scandal) progresses,” said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “I don’t see the ‘new broom sweeping it clean’ … approach. I see just the opposite.”

She added that “all too often we have to file lawsuits in order to get anything in response to our requests.”

Judicial Watch’s suit against the IRS was filed under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the law, public interest groups and the media can seek non-public information from the government.

On his first day in office in 2009, President Barack Obama called on federal agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” when dealing with FOIA requests. But at the IRS and elsewhere in government, little has changed.

In fact, analysts say, it’s become harder to get information as agencies such as the IRS hide behind a widening array of exemptions written into the Freedom of Information Act.

“This has nothing to do with party politics. This is a systemic trend that’s been happening in this country for 30 or 40 years,” said David Cuillien, interim director of the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona. “It’s the professionalization of PR and message control. It’s infiltrated the bureaucracy and the president can’t stop it.”

Photo via Wikimedia Commons