Just as Cabinet nominees prepare for their confirmation hearings before the Senate next week, a federal ethics watchdog agency is expressing concerns over what it called an unusually rushed process of vetting President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s Cabinet picks.
In a letter sent to Senate Democrats Saturday, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub Jr., said the schedule of Cabinet hearings created \u201cundue pressure on OGE\u2019s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews.\u201d
\u201cIt has left some of the nominees with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before their scheduled hearings,\u201d Shaub wrote in the letter obtained by CBS News. It was of further \u201cgreat concern\u201d to Shaub that several of Mr. Trump\u2019s Cabinet selections had yet to complete the office\u2019s full ethics review. For some nominees, the office had not received \u201ceven initial draft financial disclosure reports for some of the nominees scheduled for hearings,\u201d according to the ethics director.
Cabinet confirmation hearings begin Tuesday for President-elect Trump’s picks. Cameron Joseph, Washington bureau chief for New York Daily News, j…
\u201cI am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process,\u201d he said in the letter, addressed to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. The letter, written in response to questions by Senate Democrats on the issue, was also sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
On Saturday afternoon, the Trump transition team pushed back on the concerns expressed in the letter, calling it a \u201cdisservice to the country\u201d from the ethics office.
\u201cPresident-elect Trump is putting together the most qualified administration in history and the transition process is currently running smoothly,\u201d a transition spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. \u201cIn the midst of a historic election where Americans voted to drain the swamp, it is disappointing some have chosen to politicize the process in order to distract from important issues facing our country.\u201d
Over the next week, at least seven Cabinet picks are scheduled to appear before Senate committees, with three scheduled for Wednesday: Mr. Trump\u2019s education chief pick Betsy DeVos, his transportation secretary choice Elaine Chao, and one of his most controversial appointments, Rex Tillerson, a billionaire oil executive with close business ties to Russia , for secretary of state.
But the letter from the Office of Government Ethics, which oversees problems with the executive branch\u2019s potential conflicts of interests, could present a roadblock for Senate Republicans hoping for speedy confirmations.
Shaub warned that it would be \u201ccause for alarm if the Senate were to go forward with hearings on nominees whose reports OGE has not certified.\u201d
\u201cFor as long as I remain Director, OGE\u2019s staff and agency ethics officials will not succumb to pressure to cut corners and ignore conflicts of interest,\u201d he said.
Schumer, the new Democratic leader in the Senate, urged Republicans in the upper chamber to \u201cheed the advice of this independent office and stop trying to jam through unvetted nominees.\u201d
The letter \u201cmakes crystal clear,\u201d Schumer said in a statement Saturday, that the process to get Cabinet nominees pushed through before they\u2019ve been reviewed by the ethics office is \u201cunprecedented.\u201d
In her own tweet Saturday, Warren also called on the Senate to delay confirmation hearings until ethics reviews were completed, saying it was \u201cridiculous\u201d for nominees to \u201cdrag their feet on ethics paperwork.\u201d
This is ridiculous. @realDonaldTrump \u2019s noms can\u2019t drag their feet on ethics paperwork while their Senate friends try to run out the clock.
Cabinet officials must put our country’s interests before their own. No conf hearings should be held until we\u2019re certain that\u2019s the case.
McConnell\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

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