Thursday, August 8th, 2013
It is very damaging when a government official misrepresents ethics
advice he has been given. What should an ethics officer or
commission do when this happens? In many cases, such advice,
especially when it is provided informally, is confidential. When an
official makes a public statement about such advice, the EC
spokesperson can say nothing but "No comment." This allows the
official to say whatever he likes.
This situation was answered skillfully by the Massachusetts Ethics...