Trump's 'Fake News Awards' could violate ethics rules
Little is known about what the president intends to do Wednesday, but some experts aren't taking it lightly.
By JASON SCHWARTZ 01/15/2018 07:24 AM EST
Every awards show has its critics, but President Donald Trump’s much ballyhooed “Fake News Awards” has drawn attention from a group beyond the usual peanut gallery: ethics experts who say the event could run afoul of White House rules and, depending on what exactly the president says during the proceedings, the First Amendment.
The White House has not yet said what form the awards presentation, scheduled by Trump for Wednesday, may take. But Norman Eisen, the former special counsel for ethics for President Barack Obama, and Walter Shaub, the former head of the Office of Government Ethics, have both tweeted that if White House staff members were involved, they would be in violation of the executive branch’s Standards of Ethical Conduct, which ban employees from using their office for “the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise.”
Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, agreed, telling POLITICO that there were plenty of valid reasons for executive branch employees to use their position to criticize private enterprises — if a bus company were violating federal safety regulations, for instance — but that helping put on an event to bash the media would not qualify.
“There has to be a legitimate official government reason for the position you’re taking with the respect to the particular company,” Painter said. “But here the only reason is they don’t like the coverage of the president.”
more
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/15/trump-fake-news-awards-ethics-339183?lo=ap_b1
= new reply since forum marked as read
....then look at what IQ45 plans.
It's the difference between "CLASS!" and "ASS!" 
