The Trump administration may have skirted federal ethics rules by retroactively granting a blanket exemption that allows Stephen Bannon, the senior White House strategist, to communicate with editors at Breitbart News, where he was recently employed an executive.
The exemption, made public late Wednesday along with more than a dozen other ethics waivers issued by the White House, allows all White House aides to communicate with news organizations, even if they involve a “a former employer or former client.’’
The waiver, which was undated, did not mention Bannon specifically but appeared to benefit him by potentially dislodging him from a pending ethics complaint over his past discussions with Breitbart editors. It would also free him from restrictions on his future communication with the media company.
The waiver, and the fact that it remains unclear when it was originally issued, seemed unusual to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who questioned its validity.
“There is no such thing as a retroactive waiver,’’ Shaub said in an interview. “If you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule.’’
A spokeswoman for the White House did not respond to a request for comment. The ethics waivers had prompted a dispute between the White House and the Office of Government Ethics, which pressed the administration to make them public. The waivers reveal what past work might conflict with aides’ new official duties.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order that put in place stringent ethics rules for his political appointees like Bannon. Under the policy, Bannon would be barred from contacting Breitbart employees for two years to discuss issues that were under his purview while he was an executive there.
But Bannon continued those communications, including with Breitbart editors, after beginning his job as Trump’s chief strategist on Jan. 20, according to a complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal group.
Some critics have raised concerns about Bannon’s ties to Breitbart, which he helped build into a formidable conservative media force before leaving last August to join Trump’s presidential campaign.
The complaint alleged that Bannon’s discussions with the media organization resulted in Breitbart’s receiving preferential access to senior members of the president’s administration.
The complaint was filed with the White House Counsel’s Office, which has the ability to investigate and issue a punishment, if it deems one necessary. It has not commented publicly on the complaint.
But in another recent case, after complaints from several groups, the counsel’s office disclosed that it found that another top adviser, Kellyanne Conway, had acted inadvertently by promoting the brand of Ivanka Trump, Trump’s daughter, during an interview on Fox News in February. It said Conway was highly unlikely to err again.
The Office of Government Ethics, which is the chief ethics monitor for the federal government, does not have the authority to investigate complaints.
It did issue an opinion during the Obama administration maintaining that retroactive ethics waivers were not allowed, noting several instances where they appeared to have been granted after the fact.
