N.J. congressman wants details on Michael Flynn's lobbying status

WASHINGTON — A New Jersey congressman wants to know whether President Trump's former national security adviser can skirt ethics rules and profit from his short-lived government post with lucrative lobbying work.

Ethics rules that President Trump signed in January bar administration officials from lobbying their former agencies for five years after leaving the government and impose a lifetime prohibition on lobbying on behalf of a foreign government. The executive order, however, dropped a requirement imposed by President Obama to publicly report on the number of employees who complied with the ethics pledge and whether the administration had granted any waivers that allow employees to avoid those ethics restrictions.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, has written to Trump asking whether former national security adviser Michael Flynn received a waiver that would allow him to lobby on behalf of a foreign government.

Flynn, who lasted less than a month in the White House before he was fired by Trump over his discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, last week registered retroactively as a foreign agent. He acknowledged working on behalf of a Dutch firm with ties to Turkey’s government and said he earned $530,000 from the firm last year while serving as a key adviser to the Trump campaign.

Flynn’s work included investigating Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in exile in rural Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Gulen helped instigated a failed coup against his government last year and wants him extradited.

“Trump’s campaign was built on a platform of America First,” Pascrell told USA TODAY, citing one of the president’s campaign themes. “I’m concerned that Trump’s national security adviser advocated for a client that put a foreign government first.”

In a letter to Trump, Pascrell asked him to “publicly certify” whether he or anyone in the administration has or will exempt Flynn from the post-employment foreign lobbying ban.

On Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters all administration officials are required to sign an ethics pledge that bars them from ever lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.

White House officials declined to answer USA TODAY questions about whether Flynn — or any other administration official — had received a waiver from the ethics order.

They referred questions to Flynn, who did not respond to interview requests.

Flynn's lobbying revelations have forced the White House to contend with repeated questions in recent days about the conduct of a former employee as the administration works on an array of issues, ranging from a newly revised order on immigration to efforts to push a bill through Congress that repeals the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

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During the Obama administration, the Office of Government Ethics was required to issue annual reports tallying compliance with the administration’s ethics order. In addition, the White House posted on its website a list of the waivers granted. In the days before Obama left the White House, the list showed 17 such waivers. Some allowed former lobbyists to join the administration.

Ethics watchdogs have sounded alarms about Trump’s decision to drop the public-disclosure requirement.

“It’s one of the biggest weaknesses of the new order,” said Norm Eisen, who served as Obama’s top ethics lawyer and now chairs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Ethics doesn’t work in secret.”

Eisen’s group has sued Trump over his decision to retain ownership of his real-estate and branding businesses.

Pascrell also has challenged Trump on other issues. Last month, for instance, he unsuccessfully sought to have the Ways and Means Committee use an obscure 1924 law to examine the president’s tax returns for potential conflicts of interest.

Trump has refused to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing IRS audit.