The president has maintained effective control of his business empire while in office, and several top government officials have been credibly accused of serious ethical lapses. These revelations have threatened to further damage Americans’ faith in the integrity of government.
At the same time, the president has urged the Justice Department to investigate his political opponents, demanded that it take action against companies whose media outlets have criticized him, fired the FBI director, and ousted his attorney general for a perceived lack of loyalty. And the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded that the president sought to influence the federal investigation into Russian election interference. The result has been to dangerously undermine our longstanding tradition of independent, unbiased law enforcement.
In response, the Brennan Center is fighting to ensure that government officials are serving the people’s interests, not their own — and to renew America’s long-standing commitment to the rule of law and the ideal of public service as a public trust. We convened a bipartisan task force of former senior government officials who have offered detailed proposals to tighten ethics laws and prevent inappropriate politicization of law enforcement.
