Cummings wants House Oversight to hold hearing with resigning ethics director

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is calling for the panel to invite the former director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) to publicly testify in the wake of his abrupt resignation on Thursday.

In a letter to committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) called for a hearing on strengthening government ethics regulations and said former OGE Director Walter Shaub’s testimony should be part of it. 

“The American people deserve to hear from this experienced ethics expert about the challenges he faced in his position and the reforms he believes would strengthen our program of government ethics,” Cummings wrote.

{mosads}Cummings’ request followed Shaub’s announcement Thursday that he would leave his post as the government’s top ethics official six months before his term was set to expire. 

Shaub had become a hero of sorts among President Trump’s opponents for his repeated ethics challenges to the Trump administration. He publicly encouraged the president to divest from his assets and business interests and criticized the White House’s use of ethics waivers. 

But in an interview with The Washington Post, Shaub said he was not pressured by the Trump administration to leave his post, and said it’s “clear that there isn’t more I could accomplish.”

He also said, however, that the Trump administration made clear the “need to strengthen ethics programs.”