Alternative headlines for this piece:
1) Why is Congressman Chaffetz investigating the federal ethics chief for doing his job?
2) Now that Chaffetz has no Democrats to investigate, he's taking aim at public servants
But frankly, none of these headlines capture just how dangerous and outrageous the conduct of GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz is. Before the election, Chaffetz, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, couldn't wait to launch an onslaught of investigations into Hillary Clinton, whom he said provided a "target-rich environment." Of course, there wasn't any hard evidence that Clinton had engaged in corrupt practices—it just looked that way to Chaffetz and, by god, he was going to get to the bottom of it!
But after popular vote loser Donald Trump was elected, Chaffetz lost his zeal for holding presidents to account. The Constitution? Who cares, he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos over the weekend. Here's the exchange in which Chaffetz was asked about Trump's constitutional violations in the eyes of Richard Painter and Norman Eisen, former ethics lawyers for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, respectively.
STEPHANOPOULOS: you just heard both Mr. Painter and Mr. Eisen say that they believe that the president-elect is going to be in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution on day one. Have you asked for documents from the president-elect?
CHAFFETZ: No, that's speculative. I mean, Donald Trump hasn't even been sworn in yet. [...] Now, the emoluments clause, he's going to have to look at and we'll see how that rolls out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, yeah, and the ranking Democrats of several different committees, 21 different committees, have petitioned the speaker to request documents detailing the president-elect's business dealings around the world to get at this question, including possible loans and investments from Russians. Will you request that information?
CHAFFETZ: No. I have no plans to do that at this point.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Isn't the emoluments provision of the Constitution the law of the land?
CHAFFETZ: Yeah. It's in the Constitution. The president-elect hasn't even been sworn in yet. So, all this flailing about how he's done everything wrong it's a little premature at best.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Five days from now, he will be the president of the United States. At that point, will you be requesting this information?
CHAFFETZ: No, not necessarily.
No, No, No, and No—I'm absolutely not interested in whether Trump will be violating the Constitution of the United States on the very day he's sworn in as pr*sident.
Here's who Chaffetz is keeping an eye on: the public servant who dared to publicly worry about Trump's ethical conflicts of interest, Walter Shaub.
Shaub announced last week that Trump's plan for his businesses would still leave him in violation of the Constitution. How dare Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, do his job?
In the wake of Shaub’s announcement, Chaffetz sends the ethics policeman a letter accusing him of unprofessionally blurring politics and ethics guidance. Citing a string of tweets, he demands that Shaub make himself available for the committee to “interview” him (presumably not a public hearing).
Honestly, if this doesn't outrage you, it absolutely should. Instead of making sure that the Trump is adhering to the Constitution, Chaffetz is targeting, intimidating, and bullying a public servant who is trying to make sure the next pr*sident can do the people's work, free of unconstitutional ties that would compromise his ability to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.
As Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said:
“If you were wondering how long it took Chaffetz to go from worrying about the possibility of even the perception of corruption to being not necessarily concerned about the President of the United States violating the Constitution: five months.”
Welcome to GOP "oversight," America, courtesy of Jason Chaffetz: post-Constitutional, and focused exclusively on public servants who are concerned for the well-being of the country.