Government ethics chief who clashed with Trump resigns

— -- Walter Shaub, the director of the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE), is expected to resign from his post later this month, according to a post on his personal Twitter account.

In a resignation letter to the White House, Shaub praised the OGE’s work, saying that it is “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.”

In a separate press release, the Campaign Legal Center announced that he will become its senior director of ethics on July 19.

He criticized the Trump administration in the press release, saying, “In working with the current administration, it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program.”

Shaub was appointed to a five-year term as the director of the OGE in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama. Shaub has been a regular critic of President Donald Trump’s decisions regarding his business entanglements since the 2016 election.

In November, the official OGE Twitter account posted tweets sarcastically praising the president for divesting from his business.

In January, Shaub sharply denounced Trump’s plan to step aside from managing his business, leaving the work to his two sons and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg.

“Stepping back from running his business is meaningless from a conflict-of-interest perspective,” Shaub said at a Brookings Institution forum in Washington on Jan. 11. “The presidency is a full-time job, and he would’ve had to step back anyway.”