{"id":122207,"date":"2021-02-09T13:36:54","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T18:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=122207"},"modified":"2021-02-09T14:15:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T19:15:33","slug":"former-obama-ethics-chief-says-biden-should-address-conflict-of-interest-with-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-obama-ethics-chief-says-biden-should-address-conflict-of-interest-with-brother\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Obama Ethics Chief Says Biden Should Address Conflict of Interest with Brother"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-obama-ethics-chief-says-biden-should-address-conflict-of-interest-with-brother%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=122207&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A top ethics lawyer during the Obama administration said this week that President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-joe-biden\">Joe Biden<\/a>\u2019s administration should clarify ethics rules after it was revealed his brother\u2019s law firm was using the sibling relationship in promotional material.<\/p>\n<p>Frank Biden was hired by Berman Law Group as a senior adviser in 2018. Since then, the Florida-based company has touted his ties to Joe Biden. In one post in 2018, the firm wrote that \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s brother joins The Berman Law Group.\u201d In an advertisement that ran on the day Joe Biden was inaugurated, the firm said Frank Biden shared his brother\u2019s \u201ccommitment to environmental and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there is a problem here, and it\u2019s an appearance problem, admittedly, but appearance matters in a period when we\u2019re trying to rebuild after what was inarguably the most unethical presidency in our history,\u201d Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said during an appearance on CNN.<\/p>\n<p>While Biden pledged to keep distance between his family and the White House during the presidential race, his brother\u2019s law firm has undercut that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s not enough for the White House to tell us they have a mysterious process of some sort. I\u2019d like them to tell us what that process is. And although it\u2019s not required by the rules, we\u2019re in a period when we\u2019re rebuilding from ethical failures, so I\u2019d like to hear the President say that he has asked his brother to stop touting the connection to the White House,\u201d Shaub said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, he can\u2019t control his brother, but he certainly can reassure us that he has asked him. He can share what the process they put in place is, and he can also ask that all of his political appointees will refrain from dealings with the law firm and defer to career government officials to handle any matters that arise. I think that would go a long way to resolving the appearance concern, and I hope they\u2019ll do that, because they haven\u2019t done it yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The White House didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment on Shaub\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n<p>White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last month that \u201cthe president is committed to ensuring we have the most ethically vigorous administration in history, and that includes restrictions on what\u2014how his image can be used, and that is something that he\u2019s conveyed publicly and privately as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the White House\u2019s policy that the President\u2019s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities to suggest or in any way they could reasonably be understood to imply his endorsement or support,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3690394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jen-Psaki-1200x849-1.jpg\" alt=\"White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks\" width=\"640\" height=\"453\" \/><\/p>\n<p>White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 8, 2021. (Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Other ethics lawyers have called on the Biden administration to implement strong ethics rules, including Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration.<\/p>\n<p>The Berman Law Group didn\u2019t turn a phone call. Frank Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/01\/27\/biden-brother-touts-relationship-with-president-in-inauguration-day-ad-for-law-firm.html\">told CNBC<\/a> via email that he \u201cnever used my brother to obtain clients for my firm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur firm has long been involved [with] this lawsuit. Social justice is something I have been involved in for years. I will never be employed by any lobbyist or lobbying firm,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>In the Jan. 20 ad, Frank Biden was quoted as saying: \u201cMy brother is a model for how to go about doing this work.\u00a0One of his central tenets is that one should never question another man\u2019s or woman\u2019s motives or assign blame to them. That way, you avoid creating a disparity that prevents any kind of coming together. You can of course question someone\u2019s judgement, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing by bringing this to court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The firm\u2019s biography page for Frank Biden says he was involved in his brother\u2019s election campaigns as an advisor and unpaid campaign coordinator. He also served in the Clinton administration.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Biden has faced scrutiny over family members. His son Hunter Biden was involved in business in both Ukraine and China while his father was vice president and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/white-house-hunter-biden-still-holds-stake-in-chinese-private-equity-firm_3687501.html\">still holds a stake<\/a> in a Chinese firm. During the same time period, Frank Biden was utilizing his last name to push a charter school through. More recently, Biden\u2019s son-in-law Howard Krein has been closely involved with the COVID-19 response, stoking concerns.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Biden has promised to keep family away from government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to run this like the Obama-Biden administration,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/politics\/joe-jill-biden-first-white-house-interview\/\">told<\/a> People magazine in a recent interview. \u201cNo one in our family and extended family is going to be involved in any government undertaking or foreign policy. And nobody has an office in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A top ethics lawyer during the Obama administration said this week that President Joe Biden\u2019s administration should clarify ethics rules after it was revealed his brother\u2019s law firm was using &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1893000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3620,5772,4381,3692,5315,4005],"class_list":["post-122207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-biden","tag-chief","tag-ethics","tag-former","tag-obama","tag-says"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1893000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}