White House: It's in 'Public Interest' for Staff to Skirt Ethics Rules to Meet With Fox News

[DonViejo]

Source: The Daily Beast


White House counsel Don McGahn exempted Bill Shine from ethics rules so he can have meetings with their former colleagues at Fox News.

LACHLAN MARKAY
08.13.18 11:17 AM ET

It is “in the public interest” for the White House's top communicator to be excused from federal ethics laws so he can meet with Fox News, according to President Donald Trump’s top lawyer.

Bill Shine, Trump’s newly minted communications director, and Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economist, who worked at CNBC before his White House post, have both been excused from provisions of the law, which seeks to prevent administration officials from advancing the financial interests of relatives or former employers.

“The Administration has an interest in you interacting with Covered Organizations such as Fox News,” wrote White House counsel Don McGahn in a July 13 memo granting an ethics waivers to Shine, a former Fox executive. “[T]he need for your services outweighs the concern that a reasonable person may question the integrity of the White House Office’s programs and operations.”

Kudlow, a former CNBC host, received a similar waiver allowing him to communicate with former colleagues.



Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-its-in-public-interest-for-staff-to-skirt-ethics-rules-to-meet-with-fox-news?ref=wrap

[maxsolomon]

1. Fascism proceeds apace.

FOX is Pravda.

[Leghorn21]

2. ...........yeah, I got nuthin

As Red Don would say,

“GodDAMMIT”

[riversedge]

3. damn. Nothing good will come of this.

[Roy Rolling]

4. Too Little, Too Late

They've already fooled the maximum number of gullible people in America. Propaganda is turning against them, because as the idiots die off, they're being replaced with smart kids who recognize political propaganda.


The only thing left is force to get more people to comply. And this is where it gets ugly before it gets better, sad to say. There are millions of Trumplogytes holding Trump atop his gold toilet, and won't let him get peeled off no matter what.

[erronis]

13. Hope you're right. But not all kids want to know real facts - they like the t&a on T.V.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. We are now a nation without ethics and laws.

[onetexan]

6. yeap, the swamp monsters skirt the law when it doesn't serve them

[LiberalLovinLug]

7. This only highlights the lack of fight by Democrats in the last 10 or 20 years

Some might say the lack of 'dirty' fighting. Democrats fire themselves for the even the mildest of perceived indiscretions. They follow protocal to the tee. They make sure to hire Repubicans like Comey to head important positions to make sure everyone can see how 'fair and balanced' they are.

Meanwhile Republicans motto is to 'get away with whatever you can'. When in power, brazenly disregard traditional rules, ethics and even laws, because..........who's going to stop them? And by continuing and piling on one crime onto another, it normalizes it. They can say its 'in the public interest', or its for 'national security reasons', and they have a whole network state TV and radio to back them up.

Yet when a Democrat is in the White House, its a non stop mountain of screams about every tiny mole they find. They even invent new mountains and raise them out of thin air if they can't find any real moles. Which they usually can't because Democrats are so diligent to make sure they have no unearned advantages against the 'honorable gentlepersons on the other side'.

I'm not saying Democrats stoop to the same anarchic level as the GOP, but for gawds sake, and America's, I'd like to see them not be so damn polite and bending over backwards to prove how straight and narrow they can operate. I don't care, for instance, that Trump has not been found guilty officially yet, Democrats should be shouting the word "traitor!" every time they are on air.

[scipan]

15. You got that right.

Repubs say government doesn't work, and when they get into power they prove it.

Dems feel like they have to prove gov't can work so they try to be squeaky clean but nobody seems to be paying much attention.

[salin]

8. Can't imagine McGahn will have much of a legal career after his WH gig.

Guessing he will be hounded by some state bar challenges/investigations.

Just a hunch.

[riversedge]

16. Judicial watch will hire him!!

[salin]

18. lol - and that, is not much of a legal career...

And you are right, they might. Then again I think main dude likes to grift most of the donations, so I don't know that he would begrudge a salary and benefits to McGahn. But he might get speaking (fundraising) gigs for Judicial watch. Maybe I am just cynical about the fringe rightwing "interest group" worlds - seems to all be about grifting.

[lagomorph777]

9. It's also in the public interest for staff to smuggle recording pens into meetings with Trump.

[LiberalFighter]

10. How can anyone be exempted from federal law?

[Stuart G]

17. No, I think that is not true..People can not be exempted from federal law.(in my opinion)

Just because the White House says so, does not make it so. The White House does not have the power to exempt individuals from federal law..in my opinion...

But someone will have to take them to court to prove that.

[Harker]

11. Every reasonable person

should question the integrity of the White House Office's programs and operations.

[trof]

12. Wait. White House counsel has that power?

He can exempt people from ethics rules?
How is that?

[The Liberal Lion]

14. Well hell, if breaking the law is as easy as getting your lawyer to write an excuse....

...why isn't everyone doing it? Just wait for everyone to hear this, lawyers are about to get a windfall (sarcasm)