Page 20 - Ethics Program News Today

Program, you cant have an ethics program be truly effective if whistleblowers are afraid to come forward with wrong doing. >> thank you both very much for joining me tonight. really appreciate that. when we come back, we have breaking news about the 9 1/2 hour deposition that took place tonight, the chairman of the committees involved have released a statement and information about that deposition. and information about that deposition. performance comes in lots of flavors. theres the amped-up...

Violating them or a prohibition. and we need these laws. we need some of these things to actually become statutory. >> we dont have the time for this tonight, walter, but im sure your head is just filled with things, some of which are statutory but they dont have penalties enforcement like kellyanne conway constantly violating the law by basically campaigning. turns out the penalty for that is administered for your boss, so maybe we need a codified penalty for that. >> we are going to need a lot...

I hear its a good read. thank you gentlemen for joining us. steven, the deputy white house counsel responsible for policing ethics leaving by the end of the summer, you worked in the white house ethic office. whats your reaction to the news? >> i didnt actually work in the white house. we worked with the white house. the government ethics is separate and really, you know, the guy is a very nice guy. somebody youd want as your neighbor but like all of them, this is not somebody that should be doi...

Isan, author of the book "the last palace." i hear its a good read. thank you gentlemen for joining us. steven, the deputy white house counsel responsible for policing ethics leaving by the end of the summer, you worked in the white house ethic office. whats your reaction to the news? >> i didnt actually work in the white house. we worked with the white house. the government ethics is separate and really, you know, the guy is a very nice guy. somebody youd want as your neighbor but like all of t...

But these guys follow the tone from the top. the president spent tens of millions of dollars jetting off to his vacations at his own properties, every one of which is an advertisement for the properties and the moneyization of the presidency. i think whats going on from the top is you have people who doesnt have the sense abilities of public servants that theyre supposed to be kevl federal resources, which of course is one of the primary principles of the government ethics program. you have secr...

The government ethics program. you have secretary carson even admitting his ethics official pointed out the dining room table purchase might luck funny. and he responds that he doesnt care how things look to people. the problem is the ethics program asks you to think about the appearance of impropriety. and thats alien to these guys. >> alice, he mentioned a number of other people. lets stick with pruitt. already under scrutiny for flying expensive first class travel for several trips. how do al...

Infuriated. why is that? >> maybe its because i am close to it, and after reading this story, he drove the federal election commission into a ditch to undermine our election laws and did a direct assault on the ethics program and now we are learning he attacked the department of justice. while i was on the phone talking to department of justice officials telling them jeff sessions had no choice but to recuse in order to resolve a criminal conflict of pressure, we learned don mcbegan was pressuri...

Get covered. >> walter here is what she has said, a statement she gave about all of this. if what motivated me was to grow my business and make money i would have stayed in new york and done just that. that wouldnt make sense because she wouldnt have gotten her white house platform had she not gone to the white house. >> that statement is laughable. the reality is that the core principle of the ethics program is that youre not supposed to misuse your government position for private gain. this is...

This is a man who should know better and prime actor in some of these matters. he was reportedly trying to find out if the fiza court, the court that issues warrants under the patriot act. and now we are told that hes the one who communicated the presidents desire to the department of justice. he is supposed to be the one who warns the president and the white house when they are coming too close to a line or breaking with tradition. but this is the don magin that i met when i was dealing with hi...

>> well, ive got other concerns with attorney general sessions, but i think it would be a mistake for him to resign for the reason that he had recused from the russia investigation. i, myself, spoke with department of justice ethics officials and caution them they should get involved and start looking at this because i felt he needed to recuse and in the public statements that the department of justice issued, they said they worked with those career government ethics officials so thats exactly h...