Government Ethics in the Age of Trump

Americans’ trust in government officials has never been lower. Despite the intense public focus on ethics recent years, legal scholarship subject sparse. This Article fills gap by examining regime of federal executive branch depth, with a discussion both applicable standards and agencies offices that are charged ensuring comply those standards. The describes how current system heavily emphasizes prevention, education, highly detailed disclosures while it rarely enforces law against wrongdoers. A official United States is literally more likely to be struck lightning than violating law. then considers government’s through lens criminal deterrence theory concludes an example what not do if goal discourage violations. To address this deficiency, proposes number reforms improve deterrent effect standards, including radical reimagining authority officials.