Ethics Office Investigates Whether Interior Dept. Officials Violated Transparency Laws
"That policy, watchdog groups say, has allowed top officials appointed by President Trump to then withhold or delay the release of such information."
"That policy, watchdog groups say, has allowed top officials appointed by President Trump to then withhold or delay the release of such information."
"A watchdog group on Thursday called for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a perjury investigation into agency official John Gore and former Commerce Department transition official Mark Neuman for allegedly lying about their efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census."
On June 13, 2019, CfA called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a criminal investigation into A. Mark Neuman, a former transition official at the Department of Commerce, and John Gore, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at DOJ, for having potentially committed perjury by lying about their efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. CfA also called on the Office of Professional Responsibility at DOJ to investigate Mr. Gore and discipline him appropriately for violating Bar rules prohibiting dishonesty.
"The OSC's letter to the Campaign for Accountability, which had filed the Hatch Act complaint, came shortly after Zinke's Dec. 15, 2018, announcement that he would resign. He stepped down in January amid several other ongoing ethics investigations."
"'Secretary Zinke engaged in political activity when he wore the above-referenced socks,' Ana Galindo-Marrone, chief of the Hatch Act Unit at the Office of the Special Counsel, wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to Campaign for Accountability"
"The nonprofit advocacy group Campaign for Accountability in July filed a complaint against Nunes alleging he failed to disclose business interests."
"Google and federal regulators have tended to have an especially close relationship when it comes to driverless cars. The Obama administration, for instance, took an innovation-friendly approach that sometimes translated into 'regulators reaching out to Google asking them how to write the rules,' said Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, a nonprofit watchdog group"
On April 30, 2019, CfA released a statement praising House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s decision to refer Erik Prince to the U.S. Department of Justice for lying to Congress. CfA previously called on Congress to refer Prince for criminal investigation on March 8, 2018.
On April 25, 2019, CfA released a new report, Jason Saine: Hired Gun, revealing that North Carolina State Representative Jason Saine– one of the top fundraisers in the North Carolina legislature – appears to have repeatedly introduced favorable legislation for the benefit of his campaign donors. CfA’s report details nine previously unreported examples of Rep. Saine’s apparent pay-to-play behavior, which in turn provided him with campaign cash he used to fund an extravagant, high-flying lifestyle.
On April 2, 2019, CfA announced that the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of the Interior confirmed it is reviewing CfA’s request for investigation into Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and his relationship with his former lobbying client, Westlands Water District, an agricultural conglomerate in California.