Conflict of Interest Revealed in Released Financial Disclosures of 349 Trump Officials

By Derek Kravitz, Al Shaw, Annie Waldman and Ariana Tobin, ProPublica

06 June 17

 

e have been collecting disclosure forms that lay out Trump administration officials’ financial holdings and employment backgrounds.

We now have disclosures from 349 officials and we’re sharing them with you.

They are from White House staffers, President Trump’s Cabinet and from the hundreds of members of so-called beachhead teams that the administration has installed with little notice at federal agencies.

The disclosures are crucial to understanding potential conflicts. Many lobbyists and political consultants now work at the agencies they sought to influence.

Which officials are worthy of scrutiny? Help us figure it out. You can also contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Here is a guide for how to leak to ProPublica.

Trump Administration Financial Disclosures

We expect the disclosures to become even more relevant in a few days: On Wednesday, the government will release details on ethics waivers given to former lobbyists and others now working at government agencies.

At that point, we’ll be able to match up officials who have gotten waivers – usually former lobbyists – with their exact holdings.

Here’s an example of something we’ve found: The financial disclosures of Acting Under Secretary of Education James Manning show he previously consulted for USA Funds, an organization that was once the nation’s largest student loan guarantor.

In 2015, USA Funds sued the Education Department after the government instituted a rule limiting some fees guaranty agencies charge struggling borrowers. In March, two months after Manning joined the administration, the department rescinded the rule. USA Funds, which recently changed its name to Strada Education Network, dropped the case less than a week later.

Manning received $110,000 from USA Funds for consulting on issues related to the federal student loan program and higher education data analytics, according to his disclosure form. The form doesn’t say when Manning worked with the organization, but it shows he was a consultant from January 2015 to January 2017.

A department spokeswoman told ProPublica that Manning had recused himself from all matters involving his old employer. “Jim has not been involved in any discussions or decisions made at the department that have or will effect that company,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Hill, adding that Manning “is a tremendous asset to the department.”

Manning did not respond to an email request for comment.

A spokesman for Strada Education Network said Manning had no involvement with the USA Funds lawsuit, and said his role at the department posed no conflict. “He served as a consultant on general higher education policy issues, and his consultancy ended before he was appointed to his current role at the Department earlier this year,” said Strada’s Robert Murray.

In January, Trump issued an executive order watering down Obama-era ethics rules. The order killed the requirement that lobbyist waivers be justified as in the public interest.

"Trump's executive order authorized waivers but provided no guidance and no standards for when a waiver is appropriate," said Kathleen Clark, an ethics lawyer and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Trump administration recently disclosed only those waivers that it has given to White House officials, 17 overall. No one yet knows how many more waivers have been given across the government.

Alison Gregor, Elisabeth Gawthrop and Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.