White House Moves to Block Ethics Inquiry Into Ex-Lobbyists on Payroll -<br />By ERIC LIPTONMAY 22, 2017<br />The Trump administration, in a significant escalation of its clash with the government’s top ethics watchdog, has moved to block<br />an effort to disclose any ethics waivers granted to former lobbyists who now work in the White House or federal agencies.<br />The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head<br />of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers.<br />“I have never seen anything like it.”<br />Marilyn L. Glynn, who served as general counsel and acting director of the agency during the George W.<br />Bush administration, called the move by the Trump White House “unprecedented and extremely troubling.”<br />“It challenges the very authority of the director of the agency and his ability to carry out the functions of the office,” she said.
