The New Media Journal | Holder, Others Granted Ethics Waivers

The New Media Journal | Holder, Others Granted Ethics Waivers: "The White House late on Friday published ethics waivers for several political appointees in the administration, setting aside the executive order President Barack Obama signed on his first full day in office.

The move to disclose the waivers came after public interest groups pushed the administration to consolidate waivers granted by other federal agencies besides the White House into one location, which has turned out to be the Office of Government Ethics website. Six waivers have now been granted to staff at the White House and ten to employees at other agencies.

None of the waivers are related to past lobbying activity by the appointees, but rather allow them to work with their prior employers before they joined the administration. The most high-profile person to receive a waiver was Attorney General Eric Holder.

Holder and two other appointees at the Justice Department, Lanny Breuer and David Ogden, received waivers in order to work on an investigation into what went wrong with the prosecution of former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Stevens was indicted and convicted for failing to disclose gifts from a benefactor in his financial disclosure reports but charges were later dropped after the probe into the Republican senator was found to be botched."