(NewsGlobal.com)- Last week, the Washington Examiner reported that senior White House advisor Anita Dunn still hasn’t divested holdings worth tens of millions of dollars four months after returning to the White House.
So much for Biden’s boast that his would be the most “ethical” administration in history.
When Dunn returned to the administration in May, the White House said she would divest her holdings and recuse herself from any matter involving the Democrat consulting firm she founded or her previous clients.
But four months later, the White House says this promised divestment “is still in process.”
By comparison, when John Kerry was appointed “climate envoy” in January, by March, he had divested hundreds of thousands of dollars of energy-related investments.
According to a White House official, Dunn is “taking all necessary steps” to divest her holdings. But the official would not say if she has sold any of her publicly-traded assets as yet. In the meantime, the official said Dunn “has the appropriate recusals in place.”
Given Dunn’s possible conflicts of interests, Walter Shaub, Obama’s former director of the Office of Government Ethics said any delay by Dunn poses major concerns.
According to Schaub, this is an “outrageously slow pace” of divestitures. The Senate gives presidential nominees 90 days to divest holdings after being confirmed, Schaub told the Washington Examiner. The same should hold for White House appointees, especially someone like Anita Dunn whose portfolio is loaded with “potentially conflicting investments.”
In her 2021 financial disclosure, Dunn reported between $16.8 million and $48.2 million in stocks, bonds, and call options.
Her holdings include corporate bonds issued by companies subject to federal oversight, including Amazon, Visa, Apple, and Wells Fargo. She and her husband also own individual stocks in the biopharmaceutical, telecommunications, technology, and energy sector, including Pfizer, Coca-Cola, General Dynamics, and CVS.
Dunn became a permanent advisor in May after two earlier postings to the Biden White House during which the White House was able to bypass the disclosure requirements by listing her as a “special government employee.” Any “special government employee” making below the $132,552 salary does not need to file a financial disclosure.
Read the Washington Examiner report HERE.
