NEW EO ALERT. PerkinsCoie. “On January 28, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order setting new ethics commitments for incoming executive branch appointees (Ethics Executive Order or the Executive Order). Pursuant to the Executive Order, incoming appointees must sign a pledge through which they become contractually obligated to abide by certain ethics standards. These new standards have significant consequences for appointees and government relations professionals. A summary follows.”
PAINTER PROFILE. ST. “Painter is a top ethics scholar who worked as Republican President George W. Bush’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007. But he has picked a fight with the GOP’s latest White House resident for refusing to sell off some assets and place the rest into a blind trust, as every president has done for the past four decades.”
NEW GROUP LAUNCH. USAT. “Several key political operatives from President Trump’s campaign announced plans Monday to launch an outside group they say will promote the new president’s policies and provide a ‘counter balance’ to ‘the agenda of the liberal and biased media.'”
GROUP LAUNCH ][. Politico. “Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will co-chair a newly-formed outside group that is devoted to promoting President Donald Trump’s agenda.”
ROGUE TWITTER ACCOUNTS. NPR. “‘Rogue’ accounts that have the look of those by real federal agencies are spreading like wildfire on Twitter.” “Real” or not, an account describing itself as the “unofficial #Resistance team of the U.S. Federal Election Commission” has been tweeting for a few days and now has more followers than the FEC’s verified Twitter account.
AL: PERSONAL LOAN NEWS. YH. “A new report has shown that the Alabama governor waited more than two months to report a $50,000 loan he made on November 15. Though law requires him to disclose the amount within two days of its deposit, the records weren’t submitted until last week.”
AK: LOBBYIST TAX. ADN. ” It would require lobbyists to pay a 2.5 percent tax on their contracts.”
NM: HITTING PROPOSAL. AJ. “For years, the Journal has advocated for ethics reform grounded in accountability and transparency.”
HAVE A GOOD DAY.