ABC News; Former government ethics director warns of corruption danger
"President Donald Trump dismissed David Huitema from his role as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Monday.
OGE is responsible for overseeing the executive branch's ethics programs, including efforts to "prevent financial conflicts." Huitema was nominated by former President Joe Biden and was sworn in the weeks after Trump's victory in the 2024 election.
ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke with Huitema about his sudden removal from the job on Wednesday...
ABC NEWS: I guess it sounds like an obvious question, but humor us here for a moment, why do you believe that government watchdogs are important?
HUITEMA: Well, I think they're important for a couple of reasons. Even though they are mostly internally focused, they don't have a lot of visibility, I recognize that a lot of people watching probably have never even heard of the Office of Government Ethics, but they help set the tone and build a culture within government of respect for the rule of law, adherence to the rule of law, a commitment to public service, and an expectation of accountability for that public service.
And so as those institutions are eroded, people may not see it right away, but in time, you can expect to see more corruption, more abuse of office and less accountability for that. The guardrails to sort of notice and address those kinds of concerns will be reduced.
And eventually, I guess my big concern is that in the long run, if that continues now, a change of culture is really hard to reverse."
