Judges are failing to disclose luxury trips, too

 

May 4, 2024

Through a series of shocking investigations last year, we learned that sitting Supreme Court justices had made a habit of accepting and failing to report expensive gifts and free luxury trips from "friendly" benefactors. Apparently, they’re not the only ones who don’t recognize the clear ethics violation at hand. An NPR investigation published this week revealed dozens of incidents in which federal judges failed to disclose all-expenses-paid luxury trips to judicial conferences. According to NPR, many of these convenings featured talks and presentations with “ideological content,” including a presentation from a far-right German politician who has been known to espouse racist and xenophobic rhetoric and an energy company CEO who is “suing the federal government over financial regulations.” The judiciary code of conduct and federal ethics law not only bring into question the propriety of these trips but also, at bare minimum, require judges to disclose gifts like these. The pattern of some federal judges' failure to recognize how their participation in these sorts of activities — and certainly their failure to report these trips — once again spotlights serious ethics problems in the courts. The public should be able to have utmost trust in the independence and integrity of our judicial branch: The legitimacy of the institution depends on it. But right now, there’s no good reason to think we can. WANT MORE FROM POGO? The latest from us, straight to your inbox For updates on POGO’s investigations, upcoming events, and more ways you can get involved, subscribe to our emails. INVESTIGATION Road to Reprisal: U.S. Agency Fired Congo Whistleblower” Retaliation claims highlight human rights and environmental risks and tensions in an agency at the forefront of U.S.-China rivalry in Africa. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “It’s a big deal to make that decision to come forward and speak out. When whistleblowers don’t get the relief they deserve, it has this huge chilling effect on everyone else.” Joe Spielberger, Policy Counsel, in Spotlight PA OVERHEARD   WANT MORE FROM POGO? Eyes on the federal government from every angle:   Paper Trail: Quick links to the news in the world of government oversight The Bunker: Military intelligence from POGO's Mark Thompson The Bridge: Wade through the jargon with Spurthi Kontham 🎧 Bad Watchdog Podcast 📺 YouTube 📱 Instagram 💸 Support our work

pogo.org The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

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POGO: Inspectors general under fire again

May 23, 2020

Over the past week, President Donald Trump replaced another two inspectors general without justification. He fired the inspector general for the State Department in what appears to be retaliation for the IG’s investigations into the administration’s emergency declaration used to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, as well as Secretary Pompeo’s alleged misuse of Diplomatic Security to run personal errands. Trump also replaced the acting Transportation Department inspector general, who was investigating the transportation secretary for possible favoritism towards projects in Kentucky, the home state of her husband, Senator Mitch McConnell.   Since early April, Trump has removed two Senate-confirmed inspectors general and replaced two acting inspectors general. It seems he’s been emboldened to go after anyone who might uncover wrongdoing in his administration. To add insult to injury, Trump replaced the most recently ousted IGs with political appointees from within the departments they will now oversee. And they will both apparently remain in their original roles at their respective departments, creating a flagrant conflict of interest.   We feel strongly that we cannot sit idly by while the president attempts to undo our nation’s system of checks and balances. We published two op-eds this week calling on Congress to act. In the Washington Post, Executive Director Danielle Brian called on Congress to pass legislation that would prevent the president from firing an inspector general without a legitimate reason. In Responsible Statecraft, Center for Defense Information Director Mandy Smithberger and Public Policy Director Liz Hempowicz called on Congress to continue the investigations the State Department was unable to complete and to strengthen its own oversight powers. INVESTIGATION 52 Infected After Navy Fails to Prevent Virus Spread on Ship

Late last month, barely a week after the Navy’s Military Sealift Command assured the public that the coronavirus was not spreading among civilian mariners, the virus ripped through the USNS Leroy Grumman, leaving nearly half the crew and 30 contractors infected. Read More ANALYSIS Questions Regarding the Government’s COVID-19 Response POGO's timeline of the first 100 days of the administration's reponse to coronavirus raises some important questions. Read More EVENT COVID-19 and the Pentagon: The Road Ahead on Defense We're hosting a town hall this week to discuss how COVID-19 will likely impact the Pentagon's budget and other upcoming legislation. Save Your Spot OP-ED It’s past time for Congress to give inspectors general and whistleblowers additional protection President Donald Trump's recent attacks on inspectors general and whistleblowers have made abundantly clear that he feels emboldened to go after anyone who seeks to hold his administration accountable. Read More PODCAST Military Health Care Challenges with Dr. Robert Adams Retired Army doctor Robert Adams talks about the consequences of the efforts to outsource the military’s health system over the past decade, despite repeated warnings from medical professionals. Listen ICYMI COVID-19 and the Constitution: How to Protect Our Civil Liberties If you weren't able to watch our townhall on COVID-19 and the Constitution live, you can still check out the archived video. Watch QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Inspectors general are supposed to be independent of the agency ... but now you have a political appointee who is still a part of the State Department’s administration acting, as well, as an independent inspector general, which is just a flagrant conflict of interest.” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, on C-SPAN ONE LINERS “These people are being hired for who they know” Mandy Smithberger, Director of the Center for Defense Information at POGO, in the New York Times   “This is exactly how the inspector general system is not supposed to work. Congress created the system to separate oversight from politics in effort to bar cabinet secretaries from halting or interfering with investigations.” Liz Hempowicz, Director of Public Policy, in TIME   “They need an administration that values them and values the purposes of IG and independent oversight. ... It should take more than just sending a letter to Congress and saying ‘I don’t like this guy.’” Rebecca Jones, Policy Counsel, in the Wall Street Journal   “It’s not entirely their fault. ... But they shouldn’t be putting their hand out when they are doing stock buybacks and have lines of equity to tap before taking taxpayer money.” Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst, in RealClearInvestigations   “It definitely troubles me when you see any sort of situation where a vendor is not just being treated by someone who has a product to sell, but as a collaborative partner they might lean on. ... The interest of a technology company is to their bottom line, it’s not to the public welfare.” Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel with The Constitution Project at POGO, in City Lab   “There have obviously been a number of IGs that have been removed but this one, I really do think is kind of the four-alarm fire for Congress that if they don't step up in a more significant way than they have, I really just don't know how the IG system can effectively function.” Mandy Smithberger, Director of the Center for Defense Information at POGO, in CNN   “The president is essentially driving a semi-truck through the fundamental structure of inspectors general.” Liz Hempowicz, Director of Public Policy, in Reason   “The funding comes with strings attached, and those strings give industry leverage over the consumer protection agency.” David Hilzenrath, Chief Investigative Reporter, on KGO's Consumer Talk   “My only hope is this ongoing and increasingly brazen behavior by the president with regards to IGs can only finally embolden the Congress to take this step and pass a law that will prohibit the president from doing that.” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, on Wisconsin Public Radio

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

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All the President's attorneys

Several of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys have opened the White House up to yet another ethics minefield. All the President’s Attorneys Several of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys have opened the White House up to yet another ethics minefield. With Trump’s impeachment acquittal in the rearview mirror, some on his legal team will be well-positioned to help their wealthy clients with business before the Trump administration, potentially leading 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into a new ethical morass. These attorneys are facing questions ranging from controversies involving their current or recent clients, how they’re being compensated, and whether they may have violated tax law in their defense of the president. Read More What to Expect for the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Over the last four decades, the government’s national security surveillance powers have increased significantly; whenever Congress passes a new law to further this expansion, as it did with the PATRIOT Act, it’s building onto FISA. Read more No, Clearview AI's creepy plan to spy on us is not 'free speech' The unrestricted use of facial recognition technology is clearly incompatible with a democratic society. This mass surveillance is misguided and sinister. We must push back before it’s too late. Read more POGO Supports Senate Resolution to Limit President’s War Powers in Iran The Senate must continue to take even stronger steps to re-assert its authority, including holding hearings on the strike against Qassem Soleimani, and voting to repeal the 2002 Iraq War authorization, as the House of Representatives recently did. The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to declare war. Read more NEW: The Bunker Introducing: The Bunker After nearly 20 years of winless wars following 9/11, and a Pentagon budget that is well above the Cold War average, U.S. national security spending has never been a more target-rich environment. That is why the Project On Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information has launched The Bunker, a precision-guided e-newsletter targeting your inbox most every week. Sign up now! Sign up for The Bunker POGO in the News The Washington Times Experts sound alarm on foreign influence on U.S. think tanks The Project on Government Oversight’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette said the foreign funding poses a risk to the national interest, particularly when it comes to funding from America’s adversaries. “There are large gaps in [FARA] that allow for a lot of the types of foreign influence we’re talking about here to continue to occur and it goes unregistered and unrecorded,” Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette said. “We also see this in the academic space a lot where there are a lot of universities and colleges here in America who are receiving a lot of money from foreign entities.” Politico Huddle Blow the Whistle After Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) publicly named the alleged Ukraine whistleblower on the Senate floor week, there is now an effort underway to ensure that never happens again. The Project On Government Oversight is spearheading a letter calling on the Senate to overhaul its rules to prohibit lawmakers from outing whistleblowers. The letter, which was shared exclusively with your Huddle host, will be sent this morning and is also signed by The Liberty Coalition and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. Mother Jones ICE Stops Using Jail Where Detainees Were Beaten and Pepper-Sprayed The same DHS report criticized the Nakamoto Group, finding that the company’s inspections “do not fully examine actual conditions or identify all compliance deficiencies” and that its inspectors “are not always thorough.” Independent investigations have come to similar conclusions. Scott Shuchart, who spent eight years at DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, told the Project on Government Oversight, “Nakamoto has no credibility because of the volume of problems it has failed to uncover at multiple facilities over multiple years…It is a checklist driven, superficial inspection process.” In light of the company’s track record of underreporting deficiencies, the Bossier inspection report is all the more striking. Senate Budget Committee Bipartisan Bill Would Strengthen Federal Financial Management Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) this week introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen federal financial management by updating the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990. The CFO Act created a new foundation for federal financial management and established a fiscal management reporting and leadership structure. Jane's Defence Weekly Pentagon Budget 2021: US Air Force again pursuing A-10 cuts A Pentagon watchdog and retired US Marine Corps (USMC) captain criticised the USAF for again trying to reduce its A-10 fleet. Dan Grazier, military fellow with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) watchdog group in Washington, DC, told Jane’s on 11 February that despite Congress repeatedly affirming its support for the A-10 and an effective CAS capability, USAF leaders have apparently convinced the President Donald Trump administration to allow them to press forward with their long-held desire to sunset, or gradually retire, the fleet. Roll Call Democratic Caucus governance still shrouded in secrecy Signatories on the letter say there’s no reason for the Democrats to conceal this information. “There is no good reason to keep the caucus rules secret,” said Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy for the Project on Government Oversight. “I can’t fathom why they haven’t been published already.” Law 360 Trump Budget Looks To Fold Audit Watchdog Into SEC “It’s unacceptable that the agency is taking such a light-handed approach in holding these large audit firms accountable,” Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director, said in a press release at the time. “By failing to hold the Big Four accountable, the board is putting all Americans’ financial futures in jeopardy.” Tech Dirt Federal Agencies Are Still Abusing Their Favorite, Super-Vague FOIA Exemption Thousands Of Times A Year The abuse of this exemption may have peaked in 2013, when federal agencies used it more than 81,000 times. But things haven't necessarily improved in the last seven years. In 2018, (b)5 was still cited more than 60,000 times. The (otherwise considerable) drop in deployment may be due to 2016 legislation, as the Project on Government Oversight explains: CyberWire Daily Briefing A Primer on Congressional Staff Clearances A primer from the Project On Government Oversight and Demand Progress offers a comprehensive resource on the limitations to congressional staff overseeing classified programs. Patch Chula Vista 911 Drone Cops Test Pilot Emergency Response In Sky They already have lenses with powerful zoom lenses — but pair them with facial recognition technology or equip them with license plate readers, microphones and possibly the scariest drone technology — Active Track, which can affix on an individual and track them autonomously — and we're on our way in a hurry to living in a surveillance state, according to the Project on Government Oversight.

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