President-elect Donald Trump could be in a position to select the government’s top ethics czar when he assumes office in January – after a key ally in the Senate blocked President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Office of Government Ethics.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah in September objected to the speedy Senate confirmation of David Huitema to the post – a little more than a year after he was first nominated by Biden. In a Senate speech, Lee said the confirmation vote should be delayed until after the presidential election, citing what he called the “political weaponization of the US government against Donald Trump by the Biden-Harris administration.”
Huitema has served as an ethics official with the State Department.
Lee’s office did not respond to a CNN inquiry Thursday about the nomination.
Independent watchdog groups outside the government say the agency, known as OGE, needs a permanent director to help oversee the onslaught of ethics reviews that are part of the transition to a new administration.
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the liberal-leaning group Public Citizen, called the unfilled post “incredibly concerning.”
“We certainly think that ethics should not be a partisan game and holding over the placement of a new OGE director for a new administration to choose their new ethics point is exactly that,” Gilbert said.
Read more on the government’s top ethics czar here.
