On the 2020 campaign trail, President Joe Biden vowed that his administration would be the most transparent in modern times. Apparently, he has failed to keep that promise, at least according to a new report from government watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT).
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The report, titled “Misconduct, Malfeasance, and Double Standards,” issues some scathing criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s lack of transparency. It discusses various actions on the part of high-level White House officials and accuses the administration of prioritizing political and special interest concerns over accountability.
The authors of the report point to multiple instances in which agency officials neglected or outright violated ethical standards.
The administration’s promise to ‘return the country to normalcy’ and become the most ethical and transparent administration in history…has instead led to an undermining of public trust and discarding of traditional norms of behavior.
The report criticizes other watchdog groups for placing heightened scrutiny on the Trump administration while remaining “mum” on the Biden White House.
“The biggest names in the game who made it a point to go after the Trump administration over ethics violations have gone mum under the Biden-Harris administration,” the report reads.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) displayed a lack of scientific integrity and offered public health guidance without having sufficient evidence to back up their claims, especially related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.
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PPT attempted to obtain documentation through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that would provide evidence supporting Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s guidance on the coronavirus but “received only a 33-page report titled ‘Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention.’”
The report argued that despite the administration’s warnings, “Social distancing proved futile” and “Quarantining students was similar to out-of-school suspensions…for no other reason than being exposed to a virus, outside of their control.”
The organization alleges that the officials in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) committed various ethics violations. “The ethics office appears to have disregarded well-established standards of integrity and offered lax enforcement of agency rules,” the report reads.
Former Senior Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) specialist and ADR Counsel David Batson also fell under scrutiny, with PPT highlighting his involvement in the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site in New Jersey—a $1.8 billion cleanup effort in which the former official allegedly violated federal ethics guidelines.
Batson allegedly remained involved with the site after he resigned, which constitutes a violation of the “Lifetime Ban” for federal employees, which exists to prevent conflicts of interest. When the PPT filed a complaint, Justina Fugh, the agency’s head of ethics, defended Batson and omitted important information that could have impacted the outcome of the complaint.
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In December 2022, the EPA entered a consent decree with 85 entities accused of contributing to New Jersey’s Lower Passaic River’s pollution, known as the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site. In the settlement, the entities agreed to pay $150 million — less than 10 percent of the estimated $1.8 billion total cleanup costs — raising concern from New Jersey leadership that the more than $1 billion gap “will likely fall onto the taxpayers.”
Whistleblower information obtained by PPT, alongside publicly-available documents, media reports, and court filings, appeared to indicate that Batson was involved at the Superfund site both during his EPA tenure and after he left in 2015.
In March 2024, PPT learned that an EPA ethics official who became involved to dismiss the allegations did not share necessary details to properly address the watchdog’s issues. When the EPA received PPT’s original complaint, Justina Fugh — the leader of the agency’s ethics office — defended Batson while omitting important information. Upon making this discovery, PPT submitted a supplemental claim with the EPA’s inspector general because the errors were so egregious.
PPT also took aim at the Education Department under Biden, accusing it of giving preferential treatment to teachers’ unions and colluding with them with over school closures during the pandemic over the objections of parents.
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“While the frustration of parents with their children’s education was spilling out all over the country, their concerns were being spurned at the department,” the authors explained.
Teachers’ unions…were provided concierge-level service, while at the same time ED botched an attempt to create a parents advisory group and helped promote efforts to target parents who expressed dissatisfaction with school policies.
The report notes that the agency’s “cozy relationship with teachers’ unions does not just raise skeptical eyebrows about whose interests it is promoting, but can also create potential conflicts of interest concerns.”
Gina Raimondo, Secretary of the Department of Commerce, may have violated ethical obligations by engaging in official business with her husband’s company, the report alleges. PPT filed an ethics complaint against her demanding an investigation into various potential violations.
The organization found that Raimondo signed a statement admitting that she is “disqualified from participating as Secretary in particular matters having a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of PathAI, a company that makes medical diagnostic software, including matters affecting the company as a member of an industry sector or group.”
Andrew Moffit, the secretary’s husband, is an executive and part-owner of PathAI. “Secretary Raimondo may have mixed her official business and her husband’s in a manner that violated her disqualification statement,” the report notes.
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The White House’s lack of transparency has been an issue since the president first took office. It has engaged in questionable censorship practices on social media and tried its level best to conceal important information, as detailed in PPT’s report. Yet, as the report suggests, other watchdog groups and even members of the press have demonstrated a remarkable lack of curiosity about the issue.
