White House restores financial disclosure page after CBS News inquiry
The White House's page listing dozens of financial disclosure forms went offline without explanation, only to be restored after CBS News inquired about its removal.
Key points
- The White House financial disclosure page went offline Friday afternoon and was restored after CBS News asked about it.
- The page lists disclosures for the president, vice president and more than 100 White House staffers.
- When it returned, one new file appeared: a report on the president's stock trades signed Sept. 17.
The White House page listing financial disclosure forms for President Trump and top officials went offline without explanation Friday afternoon and was restored after CBS News asked about it. The page, whitehouse.gov/disclosures, covers the president, vice president and more than 100 White House staffers, including Susie Wiles and Stephen Miller.
CBS News monitors ethics disclosures with an automated system that checks for new filings every 30 minutes. The page worked at 3:01 p.m. Friday but returned a 404 error at the next check at 3:31 p.m. The disclosure documents themselves stayed online.
Page restored after inquiry
At 4:20 p.m., CBS News emailed the White House press office asking whether the removal was intentional or a technical error, requesting a reply by 5 p.m. The White House did not respond. As CBS News prepared a story, the monitor showed the page back online, restored between 4:31 and 5:01 p.m., with a source-code publish time of 5:00 p.m. ET.
The White House did not answer a request for clarification on why the page went down or was restored. When it returned, it listed one new file: a report on the president's stock trades signed Sept. 17, which had been on the Office of Government Ethics website since Oct. 8. Server data show it was uploaded at 3:14 p.m.
The White House did not respond to a request for clarification about why the page went down or why it was restored.
— CBS News
Disclosure rules and records
The disclosures are required under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, and the periodic stock reports under the 2012 STOCK Act. The president and vice president file with OGE, and copies from top aides and Senate-confirmed officials also go to the agency. Other staffers' reports stay with the White House, and many have not appeared on OGE's site. In September, CBS News found more than 110 of roughly 180 officials listed on the page were not in OGE's online records.
The president's disclosures have shown thousands of stock transactions since the start of the year, including many involving companies with business before the government or affected by his policies. The White House has said the president does not manage his portfolio and that outside advisers handle his money.
