Trump nominates new ethics office director

President Trump on Wednesday nominated a new director for the federal government’s ethics office, several months after the previous director resigned over frustration with the administration. 

Trump nominated Emory Rounds, a current associate counsel at the Office of Government Ethics, to head the independent agency, the White House announced in a statement. 

The nomination follows the July 2017 resignation of Walter Shaub, who left over concerns of possible conflicts of interest for Trump and has since become a vocal critic of the president.

Shaub became director under former President Obama but also served under former President George W. Bush. 

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“I know that the effect is that there’s an appearance that the [Trump] businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency,” Shaub said in a CBS News interview following his resignation. 

Rounds, who was a lawyer for 22 years with the Navy, previously served as an ethics counsel for the White House for six years during the George W. Bush administration and as an ethics counselor for the Commerce Department, according to the White House.

The Senate is required to confirm his appointment as director.