By now, the news has reached you that Nikki Haley is out as the US Ambassador to the United Nations, and despite all of the pleasantries she floated about Jared Kushner and the Trump administration, and regardless of talk of seeking higher office, there’s something you perhaps didn’t know, because it only happened yesterday.
CREW, or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, is a watchdog group whose calls for investigations into other top Trump officials have already led to some pretty high-profile resignations: Carl Icahn, Rob Porter, Tom Price, David Shulkin, and perhaps most famously Scott Pruitt, the scandal-ridden former chief at the EPA.
On October 8th, CREW asked for an investigation into — you guessed it — UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. The request that was filed with the State Department’s Inspector General concerned her acceptance of “seven free flights for herself and her husband on luxury private aircraft from three South Carolina businessmen.”
Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of CREW, said in a statement,
By accepting gifts of luxury private flights, Ambassador Haley seems to be falling in line with other Trump administration officials who are reaping personal benefits from their public positions. Our ethics laws are clearly written to prevent even the appearance of corruption and improper influence. We’re calling on the State Department’s inspector general to further investigate the nature of these gifts, determine whether they are in line with ethics rules, and ensure that employees like Ambassador Haley are fully trained on the application and importance of ethical standards.”
Trump and Haley each cited her request for “time off” six months ago as the reason for her sudden departure. But consider the last time you asked an employer for time off — did you even remotely consider quitting in order to get it?
That her resignation comes just one day after the investigation request suggests that the flights, worth tens of thousands of dollars, could have posed more of an appearance of impropritey than the Trump administration was will to risk right now.
Featured image via screen capture
