The latest conflict came in recent days when the White House, in a highly unusual move, sent a letter to Walter M. Shaub Jr., the head of the Office of Government Ethics, asking him to withdraw a request he had sent to every federal agency for copies of the waivers. In the letter, the administration challenged his legal authority to demand the information.
Why is Trump trying to block the investigation? Apparently so the OGE can't find out if the former lobbyists are breaking ethics rules:
Dozens of former lobbyists and industry lawyers are working in the Trump administration, which has hired them at a much higher rate than the previous administration. Keeping the waivers confidential would make it impossible to know whether any such officials are violating federal ethics rules or have been given a pass to ignore them.
In other words, Trump didn't drain the swamp; he made it bigger. And now he doesn't want investigators to know.
UPDATE: According to The New York Times, on May 26 the Trump administration backed down and it will revealed who got waivers from ethics rules. The timing seems to coincide with Trump getting an outside lawyer because of the possibility of getting impeached.
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