Trump had signed the “Ethical commitments of executive appointees” order during his first week in office as part of his campaign pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington.
But now, as he and his advisers leave the White House, Trump is presumably allowing these officials to start lobbying when they leave government.
The decree of January 28, 2017 required that appointees undertake not to “engage in lobbying activities against” the executive agency for which they were appointed within five years of “termination. of their jobs ”- which allows them to lobby other areas.
As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump initially called for the enactment of the five-year lobbying ban through legislation and a similar restriction on members of Congress and their staff. But his executive order was finally free of this language.
Upon signing, Trump criticized former President Barack Obama for enacting a two-year lobbying ban on officials who have left his administration, saying his Democratic predecessor’s order was insufficient and full of loopholes.
But Trump’s order seemed to borrow language from Obama’s directive and a similar lobbying ban signed by former President Bill Clinton, NPR reported at the time.
Because lobbying can be called ambiguously in practice, former staff members can still “follow” lobbying or take advantage of their government expertise by joining firms where they help lobbyists and clients of lobbying firms to. navigate Washington without officially registering as lobbyists.
Clinton had also revoked the five-year lobbying ban at the end of his term, which Trump criticized during the 2016 campaign.
“He rigged the system on his way out,” Trump said of Clinton as he ran against his wife, Hillary Clinton.
President-elect Joe Biden, who will be sworn in on Wednesday, plans to implement several new ethics restrictions early in his presidency, including prohibiting employees leaving his administration from lobbying the administration for the duration of the term. Biden’s tenure, CNN reported Tuesday.
The ethics rules, first reported by the Washington Post, would also bar outgoing executive employees from parallel lobbying for a year after leaving government.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz, Jasmine Wright, Dan Merica, Fredreka Schouten, Athena Jones and Jeremy Diamond contributed to this report.
