THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Ok, I used Spanish in the header just for fun but there is a law that requires top level White House staffers to submit financial disclosures and have them certified by the Office of Government Ethics. This is supposed to be a check on them using their offices for self enrichment. So far 5 top level staffers still have not had their disclosures certified.

A year into Donald Trump’s presidency, records show five of his top staffers still have not secured final approval of their financial reports — disclosures that are required by law to ensure Americans that these senior officials aren’t personally benefiting from their White House jobs.

Another four staffers received certification by the Office of Government Ethics after McClatchy first requested their forms last month.

The delay is likely due to Trump staffers either refusing to disclose mandated information to OGE, failing to resolve a conflict of interest or violating an ethics law or regulation, according to two ethics experts familiar with the long-standing process. But delays can also occur when White House ethics officials don’t force staffers to comply or because OGE is behind on paperwork.

The number of Trump staffers without certification a year after inauguration is not normal, according to Walter Shaub, who served as OGE director until he quit in protest in July and joined the Campaign Legal Center. “That’s a high rate of failure or delay—and those are the ones the White House knows OGE will review, so the problem might be even worse with the reports that don’t come to OGE,” he said.

The forms are part of an ethics process designed to identify potential conflicts of interest after an examination of staffers’ sources of income, assets and debts.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said the administration is working to get forms certified. “The process of getting a final certification from OGE is lengthy and tedious, just as it is with presidential nominees,” she said. “We will continue to work closely with OGE until this process is complete.” OGE declined to comment.

Ethics experts say the administration has failed to make ethics a priority despite the president’s repeated pledge to “drain the swamp” of business as usual in many ways. From the moment Trump resisted calls to place his vast business holdings in a type of trust he doesn’t control or benefit from, his team has disregarded ethics requirements and norms.

For example, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner -- both of whom are top aides in the White House -- were fined for late financial reports and several top White House staffers, including former chief strategist Steve Bannon, failed to file termination reports after being fired last summer.

“The White House has resisted being held accountable for substantive ethics standards,” said Kathleen Clark, an ethics lawyer who previously worked for the Washington, D.C. government and the Senate Judiciary Committee and now teaches at Washington University School of Law. “There have been repeated instances of the White House resisting holding officials accountable for violating ethics standards.”

It is well known the Trump family has a well known dislike of ethics. To this can be added a dislike of the law and we can also extend this dislike to the Tangerine Shitgibbons official White House 'family. It may be the law but Trump and his stooges are above that sort of stuff.