A day after the outspoken head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, called Donald Trump’s plan to resolve his tangle of conflicts of interest “meaningless,” the Republican-led House Oversight Committee, which has jurisdiction over the ethics body, asked Shaub to appear before the committee. Shaub has reportedly refused to appear before the committee since the election.
“Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the head of the House Oversight Committee, criticized the director of the federal Office of Government Ethics on Thursday over his criticism of Donald Trump’s plan to address conflicts of interest,” Politico reports. “And he threatened to subpoena […] Walter Shaub if he refuses to participate in an official interview.”
The Wall Street Journal reports Republican leaders are planning a closed-door meeting with Shaub, whose five-year term ends next January, but Democrats are pushing for the hearing to be open. Rep. Chaffetz has been critical of Shaub for his scolding of Trump for his lingering financial conflicts a week before he’s set to take office. Chaffetz has also sparred in the past with Shaub over Hillary Clinton’s disclosure and potential conflicts of interest.
“He seems to be acting prematurely at best, without doing investigations or thorough looks,” Chaffetz said in an interview with Politico. “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.”
“I believe it is imperative that Director Schaub be permitted to testify in public—before the American people—to avoid any perception that he is being unfairly targeted behind closed doors for expressing his views,” Rep. Elijah Cummings wrote in a letter to Chaffetz.
