Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Trump White House, Obama White House Compared-Truth! & Fiction!

Truth or Fiction
Truth or FictionJuly 20, 2017

https://www.truthorfiction.com/trump-white-house-staff/

Trump's White House, so far, is cheap in more ways than one. Measured against that, of course, his tax cuts,
and his shutdown have cost the public purse much more than his savings in the White House have saved it.

You could also say Trump has, so far, decreased employment opportunity for Americans, as his White House staff, so far, has been down.

Who pays was my first thought too. Hope i have it right in that the White House counsel and his team are government employees.

Who pays for Trump's and his aide's personal lawyers is a different story.

Who pays for the White House to lawyer up?

PHOTO

By Editorial Board
September 19, 2017

PRESIDENT TRUMP has hired a cadre of lawyers to grapple with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian election interference. Now, White House staffers are beginning to do the same. But who will pay the legal bills of those without the president's deep pockets?

[...]

Legal defense funds for federal employees pose a difficult problem. Corruption is a concern: Staffers could become beholden to the outside interests subsidizing their legal bills. Yet if aides forfeit their ability to raise money to defend themselves when they enter government, then the risk of bankruptcy becomes a cost of public service. That seems overly harsh, especially when some — such as Mr. Trump — are better equipped than others to fund their legal representation.

The OGE's 1993 opinion reasoned that anonymous contributions could solve this problem: How could someone be held captive to the interests of a donor whose identity remained a mystery? Yet as the office soon realized, it's impossible to prevent donors seeking a favor from revealing themselves to their beneficiaries. The better solution is to allow legal defense funds but require a high degree of transparency so the public knows who is bankrolling counsel for government officials.

It's heartening that the OGE has signaled support for this approach — and that the White House will also work to disclose donors, according to an unnamed staffer who spoke with Politico .. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/13/trump-ethics-watchdog-legal-defense-242690 [a recommended read]. Yet with more and more of the president's aides retaining counsel, the OGE's written guidelines leave unnecessary ambiguity at a time when clarity is paramount. The office should take the opportunity to publicly affirm its long-standing ban on anonymous contributions and revise its advisory note to clearly reflect that commitment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/who-pays-for-the-white-house-to-lawyer-up/2017/09/19/05f54d56-9cb3-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.27f23bf019ff

I haven't looked to see if the OGE has clarified it's position since.