{"id":1536344,"date":"2022-07-02T08:36:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-02T12:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1536344"},"modified":"2022-07-02T08:37:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-02T12:37:30","slug":"biden-admin-sued-for-keeping-top-officials-ethics-waivers-a-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-sued-for-keeping-top-officials-ethics-waivers-a-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Admin Sued For Keeping Top Officials\u2019 Ethics Waivers A Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/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%2Fbiden-admin-sued-for-keeping-top-officials-ethics-waivers-a-secret%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=1536344&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 federal watchdog is suing President Joe Biden\u2019s Department of Education for not providing records that could indicate whether senior government officials have potential conflicts of interest, according to the complaint obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education \u201cis wrongfully withholding non-exempt agency records\u201d related to ethics laws and waivers granted to political appointees, Protect the Public\u2019s Trust (PPT) argued in a <a href=\"https:\/\/protectpublicstrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Doc-1-Complaint-PPT-v-Education-22-cv-01808-1.pdf\">lawsuit<\/a> filed last Friday. The group submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the department in June 2021 seeking records dating back to November 23, 2020 but no documents have been provided.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Education has certainly earned a failing grade for their response to this Freedom of Information Act request,\u201d Michael Chamberlain, director of PPT, told TheDCNF. \u201cWith the outsized influence that teachers\u2019 unions, for example, have been able to exert on federal agencies and the fact that several high-ranking ED officials have connections to them, it is vital for the American public to know about any waivers that political appointees have received.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/presidential-actions\/2021\/01\/20\/executive-order-ethics-commitments-by-executive-branch-personnel\/\">issued<\/a> an executive order on his first day in office banning appointees from accepting lobbyists\u2019 gifts and requiring them to wait two years after leaving government to communicate with senior White House staff or federal agencies. Appointees who sign the pledge must affirm they will make choices in the public interest \u201cwithout regard to private gain or personal benefit\u201d and conduct themselves ethically in post-government employment so as to not make it seem they are using \u201cgovernment service for private gain,\u201d according to the order.<\/p>\n<p>PPT has sent public records requests to 19 government agencies for documents related to the Biden ethics pledge, the group <a href=\"https:\/\/protectpublicstrust.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/ethics-waiver-tracker.pdf\">said<\/a> in a March report. Some Biden administration appointees have been given ethics waivers, a practice that has <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2019\/05\/17\/house-democrats-seek-details-of-trump-ethics-waivers\/\">occurred<\/a> in prior administrations, which allows officials to participate in certain activities that they otherwise would not be allowed.<\/p>\n<p>Ethics waivers may be given to appointees so they can participate in matters involving a former employer. Lobbyists who then join the federal government are occasionally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Pledge-Waiver-Jessica-Ennis.pdf\">offered<\/a> them in order for them to continue work in a related field.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7463812\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7463812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden holds a news conference before departing the NATO summit at the IFEMA arena in Madrid, Spain, June 30, 2022. REUTERS\/Jonathan Ernst<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Biden has given out more than 60 waivers so far in his presidency, <a href=\"https:\/\/protectpublicstrust.org\/waiver-tracker\/\">according<\/a> to a running PPT tracker. <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/04\/19\/watchdog-group-investigation-jen-psaki-conflict-of-interest\/\"><strong>(RELATED: Watchdog Group Calls For Investigation Into Jen Psaki\u2019s Alleged \u2018Conflict Of Interest\u2019)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Numerous appointees in Biden\u2019s Department of Education used to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edweek.org\/policy-politics\/early-education-department-appointees-have-links-to-jill-biden-teachers-unions\/2021\/01\">work<\/a> for teachers\u2019 unions and other groups that may have pursued grants and opportunities offered by the department, according to PPT. Appointees may have sought to influence department policy, the group says, and Americans should be aware if officials have potential conflicts of interest or were given waivers for any ethics obligations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the Department has indicated that it has begun conducting a search for responsive records, it has not indicated that it is processing those records, has not produced responsive documents to the Plaintiff,\u201d PPT said in its lawsuit. \u201cGiven these facts, it appears that absent litigation the Department has not and does not intend to meet its statutory obligations to provide the requested records.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment, nor did The White House.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal watchdog is suing President Joe Biden\u2019s Department of Education for not providing records that could indicate whether senior government officials have potential conflicts of interest, according to the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1536344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536344","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=1536344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1536344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1536344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1536344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}