Former White House Official Granted Waiver From Trump's Lobbying Ban

WASHINGTON ' A senior White House adviser has been granted a waiver from an ethics pledge required by President Donald Trump that prohibited him from lobbying his former agency for five years after leaving office, Bloomberg reports.Marcus Peacock, who served as a top aide in Trumps Office of Management and Budget, on Wednesday joined the Business Roundtable ' one of the most prominent lobbying groups in Washington. There, hell push for pro-business policies around some of the biggest issues on Trumps agenda: infrastructure, taxes and regulatory reform.According to Bloomberg, Peacock will recuse himself from lobbying the OMB for just six months:When he joined the Trump administration, Peacock signed an ethics pledge required by the president that wouldve banned him from lobbying his former office for five years. The White House granted him a waiver from that commitment, the roundtable said.During the campaign, Trump pledged that he would drain the swamp of money-grubbing lobbyists and consultants in Washington. Shortly after taking office, he signed an executive order barring executive branch employees from lobbying the federal agency where they worked. By granting a waiver to one of his employees, however, Trump appears to be flaunting his pledge.The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.At the OMB, Peacock was a special government employee, holding a temporary position where he could only work up to 130 days per year.Some ethics provisions that apply to executive branch employees apply differently to special government employees. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics did not immediately respond to questions on how Peacocks position is considered under the ethics pledge he signed.Exceptions to ethics pledges are not all that unusual. In 2009, President Barack Obama grantedwaivers to several incoming administration officials who had previously worked as lobbyists. He, too, campaigned on cleaning up the culture in Washington. His lobbying ban, however, applied to those seeking jobs in the administration, rather than those leaving it. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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