Categories: Government

Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Website Outage, January 13, 2017

Background

On January 13, 2017, Tamara Keith of KRWG/NPR reported the following:

The website at the Office of Government Ethics went down Friday afternoon, apparently overwhelmed with traffic, as the agency and its director found themselves at the heart of a growing political fight.

OGE website administrator Michael Hanson told NPR’s Danielle Kurtzleben the site failure came as a result of the usually sleepy office’s website receiving 1 million visitors in just the last three days.

Continue scrolling for more...

Normally, it gets about 300,000 — in an entire year.

There’s a reason the website’s traffic has spiked. The office’s director, Walter Shaub Jr., has been conducting an unusually public discussion about ethics with the president-elect and the people he has chosen for his Cabinet.

Shortly after this article, I filed a FOIA request on January 16th, 2017, for documents relating to this crash.

I received the following packet of documents on February 15, 2017.

Declassified Documents

 Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Website Outage, January 13, 2017 [12 Pages, 0.5MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/OGE-WEBCRASH1.pdf

 Additional Pages Released April 6, 2017 [2 Pages, 0.9MB]

Follow The Black Vault on Social Media:

This post was published on April 6, 2017 4:00 pm

John Greenewald

Recent Posts

FBI Files: Historical Figures & Groups

Background Welcome to the FBI Files on Historical Figures & Groups archive at The Black…

October 17, 2025

FBI Files: Civil Rights Era

Background Movements for civil rights were a worldwide series of political movements for equality before…

October 16, 2025

Russian Dossier on JFK Assassination Released to Public After Hand Delivery to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna

A 386-page dossier reportedly compiled by the Russian government detailing its findings on the assassination…

October 16, 2025

Thousands of Historical Artifacts Cataloged in Released NY Parks Databases

(Note: Photo graphic above is for illustrative purposes, and not a representation of actual holdings…

October 16, 2025

Unheard FBI Audio Reveals Art Bell Discussing Threats, Rumors, and Radio Rivalries

The FBI’s file on late-night radio host Art Bell has expanded with the release of…

October 6, 2025

“Looked Like Iron Man”: Tucson Pilot’s “Drone” Report and Audio Recording Revealed in FAA Records

On December 17, 2022, a Cessna 172 pilot approaching Tucson, Arizona, reported an unusual airborne…

October 2, 2025