The United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) is an independent agency within the executive branch of the U.S. Federal Government which is responsible for directing executive branch policies relating to the prevention of conflict of interest on the part of Federal executive branch officers and employees. Under the Ethics in Government Act, this agency was originally part of the Office of Personnel Management from 1978 until it separated in 1989.

On November 20, 2016, in a rare occurrence, the OGE tweeted to President-elect Donald Trump about his decisions about divesting in his business to avoid conflicts of interest. Here are a few of those tweets:

On December 16, 2016, I sent a FOIA request for e-mails to/from certain OGE employees to search the keyword TWITTER to see what was being talked about. Those employees I requested searched were:

Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
Dale A. Christopher
Barbara A. Mullen-Roth
Lori Kelly
Heather A. Jones
Seth Jaffe
Elaine Newton
Vincent J. Salamone
Monica Ashar
Rachel Dowell
Leigh J. Francis
Patrick Lightfoot
Kimberly Sikora Panza
Christopher Swartz
Rodrick Johnson
Emory Rounds
James T. Cooper
Edith M. Brown
Michael Hanson
Danny Lowery
Timothy Mallon
Leonard Upson
Shelley K. Finlayson
Diana J. Veilleux
Brandon Steele
Heidi Fischer
Elizabeth Horton
Jennifer Matis

On December 30, 2016, I received a final response.

Document Archive

 Office of Government Ethics E-mails Mentioning “Twitter” – November 30, 2016 [367 Pages, 21.3MB]

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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.

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]

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Office of Government Ethics

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics, established by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, provides overall leadership and oversight of the executive branch ethics program designed to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest. OGE’s mission is part of the very foundation of public service. The first principle in the Fourteen Principles of Public Service is, “public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws and ethical principles above private gain.” Public servants are expected to make impartial decisions based on the interests of the public when performing their job duties. The executive branch ethics program ensures that employees fulfill this great trust. OGE works with a community of ethics practitioners in more than 130 agencies to implement that program.

Jared Corey Kushner

According to Wikipedia:

Jared Corey Kushner is an American real estate investor and developer, publisher, and senior advisor to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. Together with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, he forms Trump’s leadership team. Kushner is said to be President Trump’s most trusted advisor, showing “unwavering loyalty” to his father-in-law.

He was principal owner of the real estate holding and development company Kushner Companies and of Observer Media, publisher of the weekly, on-line New York Observer. On January 9, 2017, Kushner was named to be a Senior White House Adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. As a result, Kushner resigned as CEO of his family’s real estate company and as publisher of the Observer.  He also divested “substantial assets”.

Kushner is the elder son of American real estate developer Charles Kushner and is married to Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump. He was among the senior advisors of Trump’s presidential campaign, and stated that he played a major role in developing Trump’s digital media strategy. In 2007, his father’s company, Kushner Companies, made the most expensive single-building property purchase in US history, acquiring 666 Fifth Avenue. In 2011, Kushner brought in Vornado Realty Trust as a 50% equity partner in the ownership of the building.

With the use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), I requested from the OGE any and all “ethics advice memos” issued for December of 2016 and January of 2017. They even extended the search through February 7th as a courtesy, and found only one memorandum regarding the possible appointment of Jared Kushner, and the possible conflicts of interest.

It is interesting to note, that Mr. Kushner was officially appointed on January 9th, and the letter from the OGE directory was dated January 6th – just three days earlier.

Declassified Documents

 OGE Ethics Advice Memorandum [4 Pages, 1.0MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/OGEFOIAFY17_158.pdf

In a different request, I requested under the FOIA all emails related to “TRUMP” either sent to or from OGE Director Walter M. Shaub.

I included them here since many of them related to Mr. Kushner.

 [25 Pages, 1.7MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/17108-OGE-Trump.pdf

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The U.S. Office of Government Ethics, established by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, provides overall leadership and oversight of the executive branch ethics program designed to prevent and resolve conflicts of interest. OGE’s mission is part of the very foundation of public service. The first principle in the Fourteen Principles of Public Service is, “public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws and ethical principles above private gain.” Public servants are expected to make impartial decisions based on the interests of the public when performing their job duties. The executive branch ethics program ensures that employees fulfill this great trust. OGE works with a community of ethics practitioners in more than 130 agencies to implement that program.

To carry out its leadership and oversight responsibilities, OGE promulgates and maintains enforceable standards of ethical conduct for approximately 2.7 million civilian employees in over 130 executive branch agencies and the White House; oversees a financial disclosure system that reaches more than 27,000 public and more than 370,000 confidential financial disclosure report filers; ensures that executive branch ethics programs are in compliance with applicable ethics laws and regulations; provides education and training to the more than 5,500 ethics officials executive branch-wide; conducts outreach to the general public, the private sector, and civil society; and provides technical assistance to state, local, and foreign governments and international organizations.

Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
Director, U.S. Office of Government Ethics

On January 8, 2013, President Obama appointed Mr. Walter M. Shaub, Jr., as Director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE). He was sworn into office January 9, 2013.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Shaub was Deputy General Counsel of OGE, a position he held since 2008. In addition, he served as a supervisory attorney at OGE from 2006 to 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he worked as an attorney with the law firm Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux and Roth, P.C., where he focused on federal employment law. Previously, Mr. Shaub served as a staff attorney at several federal agencies, including OGE from 2001 to 2004, the Central Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from 2000 to 2001, the Office of General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1998 to 2000, and the VA’s Baltimore-Washington Regional Counsel’s office from 1997 to 1998.

He earned a B.A. in History from James Madison University and a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

Appointment Calendars

2014, 2015 and 2016 [56 Pages, 6.2MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/oge/OGEFOIA16-086.pdf

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Candidates for President or Vice President must file an annual Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Public Financial Disclosure Report with the FEC within 30 days after becoming a candidate, or by May 15 of that calendar year, whichever is later, but at least 30 days before the election.

After a candidate has filed his or her initial public financial disclosure report, the candidate must file an annual OGE Public Financial Disclosure Report with the FEC on or before May 15th each successive year in which the individual continues to be a candidate.

A presidential or vice-presidential candidate may request an extension of time up to 45 days for “good cause shown.” The request must be in writing, and must explain the “good cause.”A candidate may request a second 45-day extension.

Below, you will find the document released to me under the FOIA. You will note the fun spelling errors that currently plague the document.

Public Financial Disclosure Review Procedures, June 2016

 Public Financial Disclosure Review Procedures, June 2016 [9 Pages, 0.5MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/financial/OGEFY16059.pdf

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The Office of Government Ethics exercises leadership in the executive branch to prevent conflicts of interest on the part of Government employees, and to resolve those conflicts of interest that do occur. In partnership with executive branch agencies and departments, OGE fosters high ethical standards for employees and strengthens the public’s confidence that the Government’s business is conducted with impartiality and integrity.

Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Employee Manual [374 Pages, 72mb]

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