QUESTIONS
High-ranking government officials are required to avoid participating in any particular matter where a reasonable person would raise a question regarding the employee's impartiality in participating in such matter.
Document: What Are Elizabeth Klein's Ethics Obligations?
Yet Klein was involved in coordinated efforts to challenge almost every major policy of the Department. As Secretary Haaland's Senior Counselor, Klein may be asked to participate in many of these matters unless her conflicts of interest are clearly identified. How can she genuinely resolve the many potential conflicts of interest and impartiality concerns raised by her previous employment? For instance, each of the lawsuits brought by Bloomberg-funded state AGs, and in some cases the underlying decision the lawsuits challenge, constitute particular matters. A reasonable person would have a difficult time understanding how she can be impartial on any of the particular matters in which she or the Center worked on with state AGs.
Has Elizabeth Klein provided Secretary Haaland a description of the particular matters she will be recused from?
Did Elizabeth Klein provide the Department of the Interior's Ethics Office with a detailed listing of the numerous particular matters she or her former employer previously worked on prior to joining the Department? Has she done so since beginning work and participating in matters?
Has Elizabeth Klein received any written opinion from the Department of the Interior regarding the limitations on her participation in the numerous particular matters she collaborated on with various state AGs?
Has Elizabeth Klein recused herself in writing from all particular matters that she or her former employer funded and directed, including all of the litigation brought by state AGs on the Center's behalf?
What decisions, deliberations, and actions has Elizabeth Klein already participated in to date? Has she received ethics approval for each particular matter she has sought to participate in?
Given Michael Bloomberg's relationship as the primary funder and de facto boss of her former employer, how does Elizabeth Klein plan to disassociate herself from Michael Bloomberg's many business, financial and activist interests?