Congressional Democrats push for new watchdog to oversee Trump's White House

[pat_k]

4. Restoring the parts of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978

which established the Office of Government Ethics might be a good start too.

I need to research the history, but as I recall, the Ethics in Government Act provided for the appointment of a three-judge panel and provided a mechanism for Congress to seek a writ of mandamus against the AG from that panel. The little bit of research I've done, it appears that now OGE is 100% controlled by the AG and, absent action by the AG, nothing gets investigated. And that is absolutely nuts. Whether via horrible SCOTUS precedent, or amendments to the act, the original intent -- an office that didn't rely on the Executive branch to "police" itself -- appears to have been completely gutted.