On his last full day in office, President Trump revoked an executive order concerning governmental ethics and, in effect, removed barriers for former officials to lobby the United States government immediately. On January 19, President Trump signed an Executive Order fully revoking his prior Executive Order from 2017, which mandated ethic commitments for executive branch appointees.

On January 28, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 13770, Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees, which prohibited appointees of the Executive Branch from lobbying the agency they were appointed to serve for five years after leaving office. Additionally, they would be permanently prohibited from engaging on behalf of any foreign government or foreign political party if it would require them to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The executive order is effective at noon when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office. Those prohibitions will no longer exist under President Trump’s 2017 Executive Order. The early order also prohibited appointees from accepting gifts, with limited exceptions, from registered lobbyists and lobbying organizations for the duration of their service as appointees. Also, registered lobbyists appointed to an executive agency could not participate in matters in which they lobbied for two years after the date of their appointment.

This 2017 Executive Order had superseded and revoked a similar Executive Order signed by former President Barack Obama in 2009.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued an opinion confirming the Ethics Commission is constitutionally authorized to create a rule expanding the definitions for “lobby” and “lobbyist” for purposes of the new gift rules.

The opinion was issued in response to a request for clarification from Ethics Commission Chairman Ron Goodman.

The definitions used by the commission in the new gift rules in the Administrative Code adopted in October are broader than those passed by the Legislature in House Bill 1521.

The Ethics Commission expanded the definition of lobby and lobbyist to include attempts to influence any public official, administrative rule, or regulation rather than just the Legislature and legislation.

The new rules are not intended to expand the definition of who should be required to be registered as a lobbyist.

Lobbying

“Line Blurs Between PR, Lobbying” by Megan Wilson for The Hill

Campaign Finance

“IRS Grants Long-Delayed Tax Exempt Status to Crossroads GPS” by Julie Bykowicz (Associated Press) for Arizona Daily Star

“Kentucky House Passes Bill to Boost Campaign Donations” by John Cheves for Lexington Herald-Leader

“Money the Big Question in NLV Judge Challenger’s Campaign” by Bethany Barnes and Alexander Corey for Las Vegas Review-Journal

“Cleveland Council Approves Higher Caps on Campaign Donations” by Leila Atassi for Cleveland Plain Delaer

“WV Senate GOP Stalls Campaign Finance Bill after Dem Amendments” by David Gutman for Charleston Gazette

Ethics

“Manatee Judge John Lakin Says Inexperience Led Him to Take Baseball Tickets” by Kate Irby for Bradenton Herald

“Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney, Takes a Victory Lap in Albany after Winning Corruption Cases” by Vivian Yee and Jesse McKinley for New York Times

Elections

“The Movie That Foretold the Rise of Donald Trump” by Marc Fisher for Washington Post

“Sanders Defeats Clinton in Decisive New Hampshire Primary Victory” by John Wagner and Anne Gearan for The Washington Post

“Trump Notches an Easy Victory in New Hampshire’s Republican Primary” by Philip Rucker and Robert Costa for The Washington Post