President Donald Trump dismissed David Huitema from his role as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Monday.
OGE is responsible for overseeing the executive branch’s ethics programs, including efforts to “prevent financial conflicts.” Huitema was nominated by former President Joe Biden and was sworn in the weeks after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
ABC News’ Linsey Davis spoke with Huitema about his sudden removal from the job on Wednesday.
ABC NEWS: Tonight, a group of eight now former government watchdogs fired by President Trump have filed a lawsuit challenging their terminations. They include inspector generals at the Department of Defense, Veteran Affairs, education and more.
Separately Monday, President Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the official tasked with ensuring government workers comply with conflict of interest and ethics requirements.
David Huitema was confirmed by the Senate in December for a 5-year term and just two months into that term, two days ago, he was terminated. He joins us now tonight.
Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Huitema. So, the office you worked in is an independent agency that was working to prevent conflicts of interest in government. Have those guardrails now simply been removed?
HUITEMA: Well, I know that there are committed public servants still at the Office of Government Ethics and ethics officials throughout the executive branch who are committed to their work and committed to upholding those values of integrity.
But certainly those guardrails have been weakened. There is a real change in vision; I would say, from having organizations — like the inspectors general, the Office of Special Counsel, the Office of Government Ethics — that have an air of independence and authority and stature to speak without an agenda, you know, play it straight and narrow and uphold integrity, uphold the rule of law and and uphold accountability in government.
ABC NEWS: So should the American public be confident executive branch nominees are not violating ethics rules and are complying with the law?
HUITEMA: Well, we’ll have to see. You know, it’s interesting — I was caught by surprise, obviously, by my termination. And my biggest feeling is one of disappointment. I had signed up for a five-year commitment and I was committed to seeing that through.
And I knew that that meant working across multiple administrations and I was willing to serve in good faith any administration, including this one. And we’d actually gotten off to a good start.
The vetting of nominees for cabinet positions, for example, has happened in basically the same way it’s happened in the past. And we were able to do those, finish them up at a faster rate than ever before.
But we’re entering a new phase now, right? As officials actually come into their positions and are taking actions as government employees, now is when we’re entering that time period where real substantive concerns about ethics and integrity can arise.
And my sense is that the president just doesn’t want an Office of Government Ethics that’s empowered to take those issues seriously and speak to them.
ABC NEWS: Are you concerned about Elon Musk’s possible conflict of interest as he takes an unprecedented role in government oversight?
HUITEMA: Well, I don’t want to speak to any particular individuals. And, you know, part of the issue with Elon Musk and the DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] effort, right, is we don’t really know exactly what he’s doing. So, I’m not privy to any details and don’t have anything to share in that regard.
But it’s a perfect example of what a challenge it can be for people from the private sector with extensive investments and financial interests to come into government and adjust to the change in expectations, the change in rules that apply.
ABC NEWS: I guess it sounds like an obvious question, but humor us here for a moment, why do you believe that government watchdogs are important?
HUITEMA: Well, I think they’re important for a couple of reasons. Even though they are mostly internally focused, they don’t have a lot of visibility, I recognize that a lot of people watching probably have never even heard of the Office of Government Ethics, but they help set the tone and build a culture within government of respect for the rule of law, adherence to the rule of law, a commitment to public service, and an expectation of accountability for that public service.
And so as those institutions are eroded, people may not see it right away, but in time, you can expect to see more corruption, more abuse of office and less accountability for that. The guardrails to sort of notice and address those kinds of concerns will be reduced.
And eventually, I guess my big concern is that in the long run, if that continues now, a change of culture is really hard to reverse.
ABC NEWS: David Huitema, we thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
HUITEMA: Thank you.
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