Bipartisan Ethics Experts: Cash Gifts to White House Aides Warrant Immediate Investigation
September 11, 2026
Cash payments made by President Trump to senior White House aides raise questions under federal ethics law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former White House ethics officials and anti-corruption experts are calling for an immediate investigation into recent disclosures that senior White House aides received cash payments from President Trump. In a letter sent to the Department of Justice today, Norm Eisen, Richard Painter and Virginia Canter, who served as ethics advisers to Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton, respectively, warn that the cash gifts appear to violate a core federal ethics statute by illegally supplementing the White House aides’ federal government salaries.
The call for investigation follows last week’s public release of the annual financial disclosures of White House staff. The reports revealed that three White House staffers — Natalie Harp, Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris — disclosed $45,000 cash gifts from President Trump. President Trump also gave his director of Oval Office operations, Walt Nauta, a reported gift of $20,000.
These payments effectively boosted staffers’ compensation to $195,000, effectively matching the salary rate of the president’s most senior advisors. By structuring these payments to close the gap in pay, Trump’s cash payments to his staff appear to violate 18 U.S.C. § 209, which prohibits executive branch employees from receiving salary contributions or supplementation from any source other than the United States Government, the letter states.
“Trump’s no stranger to using his position to line the pockets of his most loyal allies, but this crosses a very clear line,” said Amb. Norm Eisen (ret.), co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. “Calling these shady payoffs ‘gifts’ doesn’t change the fact that they appear to be illegal. The American public deserves to know what kind of personal loyalty this administration is attempting to buy with cold, hard cash.”
“Over the past 10 years I have called out egregious ethics violations in the first Trump administration, the Biden administration and now the second Trump administration,” said Richard W. Painter, former associate counsel to President George W. Bush. “In the last 18 months we have probably had more violations of ethics rules than in the earlier eight years combined. This appears to be yet another.”
“Distributing cash gifts to senior staff undermines the core integrity of government service: that no federal official should have divided loyalties,” said Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund. “Public officials are bound by law to serve the American people, not the president’s private interests. This alarming breach demands a swift and thorough investigation.”
On Aug. 27, Democracy Defenders Fund sent an OGE Form 201 request to the White House seeking overdue filings for dozens of officials. Less than two weeks later, the White House made 93 annual reports available on its website for the first time since they were originally due on May 15, revealing cash transfers to executive branch personnel framed by administration officials as personal gifts. The letter calls on U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and the DOJ’s acting Chief of Public Integrity Edward Sullivan to conduct a thorough investigation into the cash gifts.
Read the full letter here.
# # #
Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.
For media inquiries, contact press@democracydefenders.org.
