White House Ethics Chief Walter Shaub Announces Resignation

Walter M. Shaub, the head of the Office of Government Ethics who has repeatedly critiqued Donald Trump’s sustained connections to his private businesses, announced on Thursday that he will resign his post later this month.

Shaub, whom President Obama appointed for a five-year term in January 2013, will join the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a group which styles itself “lawyers for our democracy.”

“There isn’t much more I could accomplish at the Office of Government Ethics, given the current situation,” Shaub told the New York Times. “OGE’s recent experiences have made it clear that the ethics program needs to be strengthened.”

In a letter to President Trump, Shaub wrote that he will step down effective July 19. He praised his office’s staff in the message, stating “they are committed to protecting the principle that public service is a public trust, requiring employees to place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical principles above private gain.”

Since Trump was elected, Shaub persistently has challenged the president both internally and publicly on a number of ethics issues. In November, Shaub was behind an OGE tweet storm goading the president-elect to fully divest from his corporate holdings. Then, in January, Shaub gave a speech calling Trump’s plan to create a “half-blind trust” to operate his businesses “wholly inadequate.”