Watchdog groups have expressed concern over the opaqueness of the consulting work by several appointees in the Biden administration, ABC News reports.
As in most administrations, President Joe Biden's appointees have moved in and out of government service, but ABC notes several of his appointees work for agencies that are not very transparent about their clients because they do not have to follow the same rules as K Street lobbying firms about client reporting.
Among such firms from which Biden's appointees have come include Macro Advisory Partners, Albright Stonebridge Group, and WestExec Advisors.
"They're not necessarily making a lobbying contract or doing the direct work of what would be defined as lobbying under the [Lobbying Disclosure] Act, so they don't have to file lobbying disclosure reports," Delaney Marsco, ethics legal counsel for the Washington-based nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, told ABC. "So that's a problem. That's a loophole."
In response, Biden team spokesperson Andrew Bates told ABC News the Biden team plans to be "the most ethically rigorous administration in American history. . . . Every Cabinet member will abide by all disclosure requirements and strict ethics rules — including recusals when appropriate."
Some appointees have disclosed their former clients.
Incoming National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Veterans Affairs Secretary nominee Denis McDonough, and CIA Director nominee William Burns have done work for Macro Advisory Partners. The firm does not disclose its clients, though McDonough has disclosed his, and the others are expected to do so in later filings. McDonough said his clients were GlaxoSmithKline, PWC, MasterCard, Deutsche Telekom, and Apple.
McDonough has said he will leave the firm and recuse himself from any issues dealing with his former clients.
Wendy Sherman, set to become deputy secretary of state was a senior counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group. She has not identified her clients there.
Incoming U.N. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also worked for the Albright Stonebridge Group, and reported her clients as Hilton, Amazon, Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Endeavor Energy Holdings.
Secretary of State Tony Blinken was a founder of WestExec, and disclosed his clients in December after obtaining permission from them. They include Blackstone, Lazard, Pine Island Capital Partners, Royal Bank of Canada, FedEx, Microsoft, AT&T, Boeing, and Facebook. He intends to divest from the firm.
Biden's press secretary was a senior adviser at WestExec, and Biden's choice for Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines was a principal and consultant there. Ely Ratner, who is the Pentagon's chief principal adviser on China, was an adviser at the firm.
Haines said her clients were JP Morgan, Microsoft, and Open Philanthropy. Psaki and Ratner have yet to file disclosure forms.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.