Federal ethics watchdog says Stephen Bannon's ethics waiver may not be valid because it is 'unsigned and undated'

The Office of Government Ethics revealed in a letter sent Tuesday that President Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon's ethics waiver remains "unsigned and undated." The letter was sent in response to four Democratic senators' request for information about which ethics requirements pertain to Bannon.

An executive order signed by Trump specifically requires every appointee to sign an ethics pledge agreeing not to "participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to a former employer or client" for two years after their appointment. However, the agreement allows appointees to sign a waiver, freeing them from certain restrictions imposed in the ethics pledge. That waiver must be "'signed'" and "'shall take effect' after it is signed," the OGE explained in the letter.

Aside from not being signed or dated, Bannon's waiver "purports to have a 'retroactive' effect," the OGE noted:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The OGE emphasized that it does not know if Bannon "participated in any prohibited matter or whether he confined his activities to matters in which he was permitted to participate." Read the letter in full here.