Some of President-elect Donald Trump's choices to take high-level jobs in his administration have yet to provide even preliminary financial disclosures, says Office of Government Ethics Director Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
"During this presidential transition, not all of the nominees presently scheduled for hearings have completed the ethics review process," Shaub wrote in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mass. "In fact, OGE has not received even initial draft financial disclosure reports for some of the nominees scheduled for hearings."
Senate committees are scheduled to plow through the confirmation hearings for many of Trump picks next week, so that people may be confirmed as quickly as possible after Trump takes office Jan. 20.
But the letter to Schumer and Warren is sure to give Democrats more cannon fodder for the argument that Senate Republicans and the Trump transition are rushing the process, particularly with his choices from big business and people unfamiliar to senators.
Schumer said in a statement that the push to hold hearings on nominees before the OGE has completed its work amounted to "collusion" between the Trump transition operation and the Senate Republican majority.
"The Senate and the American people deserve to know that these Cabinet nominees have a plan to avoid any conflicts of interest, that they're working on behalf of the American people and not their own bottom line, and that they plan to fully comply with the law," Schumer said. "Senate Republicans should heed the advice of this independent office and stop trying to jam through unvetted nominees."
Shaub said:
"We remain committed to completing the ethics work on each nominee as quickly as possible without compromising the integrity of our ethics work or the nominee's future activities on behalf the American public. ... "It would, however, be cause for alarm if the Senate were to go forward with hearings on nominees whose reports OGE has not certified."
