President Trump's White House counsel has issued at least 24 ethics waivers to allow top administration officials to participate in matters they either lobbied for, or worked on for private clients, prior to joining the government, The Associated Press reports. In doing so, Trump neatly circumvents his own executive order banning such activities, and further muddies his promise to "drain the swamp."
"I was very surprised and at the same time very hopeful that [Trump] was going to take his pledge to 'drain the swamp' seriously," said Craig Holman, who advocates for stricter lobbying rules with Public Citizen. "It is now quite evident that the pledge was little more than campaign rhetoric."
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