Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics who clashed with President Donald Trump‘s White House, announced Thursday that he will step down.
In a letter to Trump, Shaub said he will resign from the executive-branch watchdog effective July 19, without offering a specific explanation for leaving. He will join the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center as a senior director for ethics.
“The great privilege and honor of my career has been to lead OGE’s staff and the community of ethics officials in the federal executive branch. They are committed to protecting that principle that public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty in the Constitution, the laws and ethical principles above private gain,” Shaub wrote to in his resignation letter to Trump.
In a statement released by the Campaign Legal Center, Shaub said “it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program.”
His term at the office was set to end next year.
The OGE, an independent executive branch agency, took on more prominence in the Trump White House than it had in previous administrations. Trump, a businessman with sprawling global holdings, filled the top ranks of his administration with wealthy business people, creating various issues the OGE chimed in on in the early months of Trump’s presidency.
The agency does not have disciplinary power in the executive branch— it can only recommend actions for the White House to take.
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