U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics as his administration — packed with billionaires and riddled with conflicts of interest — abandons even the pretense of opposing corruption and lawlessness, a course underscored by the Justice Department’s push to drop bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The removal of OGE chief David Huitema was announced in a brief statement on the office’s website, which was inaccessible as of Tuesday morning.
Huitema, who was confirmed by the Senate at the tail-end of former President Joe Biden’s term, “has been heavily involved in resolving conflicts of interest with Trump’s nominees,” Government Executive’s Eric Katz reported Monday.
“Nothing says corruption like firing the top ethics cop on the beat,” Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said in a statement Monday. “Consistent with the corporate conflicts, massive wealth, and Big Tech bro connections, the incoming administration continues to exploit all avenues to increase their ability to profit off of public service.”
“The administration has halted foreign corrupt practices enforcement, is operating without a strong ethics executive order to rein in the revolving door, rolled back disclosure of lobbying by foreign agents, and has now removed a qualified ethics leader,” Gilbert added. “The Trump swamp is growing.”
The OGE director was the latest victim of Trump’s firing spree, which has targeted independent inspectors general, labor board officials, and the head of an office tasked with protecting whistleblowers. Some of the officials Trump has removed or attempted to remove are refusing to comply or fighting back in court, citing federal legal protections.
Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said in a statement that “by firing the head of the Office of Government Ethics, President Trump is continuing his purge of any independent officials tasked with holding him and his administration accountable to the law and ethical standards.”
“This follows his firing of the head of the Office of Special Counsel and 17 inspectors general,” said Sherman. “Together, these actions will streamline any efforts he and his administration make to personally profit, install loyalists, and avoid oversight of corruption and waste. By all indications, Trump is planning to run a lawless administration and these unprecedented moves are an alarming first step to put those plans into action.”
Following news of Huitema’s firing, Trump’s Justice Department — led by a former corporate lobbyist — ordered federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against Adams, a Democrat who was charged late last year with wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
As The Associated Press reported, the Justice Department claimed the case against Adams was interfering with his “ability to aid” Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
“Rather than restricting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Adams once promised, he has expressed a willingness to roll back the city’s so-called sanctuary policies and pledged not to publicly criticize a president whose policies he once described as ‘abusive,'” AP noted.
The move to drop federal charges against Adams comes after Trump signed an executive order instructing the Justice Department to halt enforcement of a decades-old law barring U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials.
“Don’t let this get swept under the rug,” CREW said in response to the order.
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