Refilling the Swamp: Trump Revokes His Own Lobbying Ban for Former Officials

In one of his last acts in office, President Trump revoked his administration’s five-year lobbying ban on former administration officials, in a Wednesday morning executive order, according to Politico.

Shortly after he entered office, Trump signed an executive order that barred appointees from any lobbying related to their agency for five years, in addition to a lifetime ban on lobbying for a foreign government. Every Trump appointee was required to sign a pledge agreeing to those rules. But in a last-minute move early Wednesday, Trump reversed the order and allowed the revolving door in Washington to continue swinging.

The move – which mirrors Bill Clinton revoking his own five-year ban on lobbying in the 90s – essentially rewards those who remained in the Trump administration until the end with the opportunity for continuous employment, while granting a reprieve to former officials who had “not been able to work,” as Trump joked would be the case when he signed the original order in 2017.

According to WaPo, Biden is expected to issue a similar executive order tackling ethics standards at the White House, which will be ‘more strict’ than those in place during both the Trump and Obama administrations.

The biggest shift is the new rule that will ban incoming officials from receiving compensation from their previous employer for taking a government job, a practice that has been a flash point for government reform advocates and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Under the Biden program, appointees would still be able to accelerate vesting for compensation they have already earned.

For departing administration employees, the Biden rules create a prohibition on lobbying the administration for at least the length of Biden’s term and add a one-year restriction on assisting lobbying efforts.

That is an effort to crack down on lucrative “shadow lobbying” jobs, in which former officials go to work at law firms to help guide lobbyists without making contact with government officials themselves. –Washington Post

According to Bloomberg, members of Trump’s inner circle have had difficulty finding outside employment.

Republished from ZeroHedge.com with permission