UN ITE D STATES OFFICE OF

GOVERNMENT ETH!CS
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March 9, 2017

Stefan C. Passantino
Deputy Counsel to the President
and Designated Agency Ethics Official
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. Passantino:
Thank you for your timely response to my February 13, 2017, letter regarding Kellyanne
E. Conway, Special Counselor to the President. While I appreciate your explanation of the White
House's ethics education and counseling efforts, I am concerned about the response for two
reasons.
I remain concerned about Ms. Conway's misuse of position. Your letter concedes that her
televised statements from the White House press briefing room implicated the prohibition on
using one's official position to endorse any product or service. When an employee ' s conduct
violates 5 C.F.R. § 2635.702, disciplinary action serves to deter future misconduct. Not taking
disciplinary action against a senior official under such circumstances risks undermining the
ethics program.
I am more concerned about the extraordinary assertion that "many" of OGE' s regulations
are inapplicable to employees of the Executive Office of the President. The assertion is incorrect,
and the letter cites no legal basis for it. 1 Presidential administrations have not considered it
appropriate to challenge the applicability of ethics rules to the entire executive branch. It is
critical to the public's faith in the integrity of government that White House employees be held
to the same standard of ethical accountability as other executive branch employees.

Walter M. Shaub, Jr.
Director

1
OGE also disagrees with the separate assertion in a footnote to your letter that White House employees are outside
OGE's purview. The underlying theory that the White House Office is not an "executive agency" for certain limited
purposes under 5 U.S.C. § 105 has never been applied in the context of goverrunent ethics, nor should it be.

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 Stefan C. Passantino
Deputy Counsel to the President
and Designated Agency Ethics Official
Page2

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Mr. Donald F. McGahn II
Counsel to the President
Rep. Jason E. Chaffetz
Chairman
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S . House of Representatives