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Richard W. Painter

MSNBC Columnist

Richard W. Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007 under President George W. Bush. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota and is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Richard W. Painter was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007 under President George W. Bush. He is the S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota and is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.

Latest from Richard W. Painter

24d ago

The last Trump stock was a disaster for investors. The new one could be a disaster for the country.

Donald Trump remains in the midst of a cash crunch, with the former president facing multiple legal judgments totaling more than $500 million.
105d ago

Democrats just provided 7.8 million more reasons why Trump is unfit for office

The Constitution bars a president from taking emoluments from foreign governments. But Democrats say then-President Donald Trump got $7.8 million illegally.
299d ago

I did Alito’s ethics prep for his confirmation hearing. His new excuses are nonsense.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s defense of his 2008 vacation with billionaire Paul Singer ignores basic tenets of judicial ethics.
353d ago

How the Supreme Court can finally get its house in order

Why does Supreme Court keep having ethics scandals? Because Clarence Thomas and John Roberts can't police themselves. Senate's Dick Durbin's hearing proves it.
409d ago

Fox News destroyed its own reputation for a painfully simple reason

Two pernicious ideas came together to destroy the reputation and the business model of Fox News.
465d ago

Trump’s tax returns show he was a bigger risk than we realized

If Congress had known about Trump's foreign bank accounts earlier, they could very well have looked into them.
509d ago

Georgia's voter laws remain rife with issues

Though Stacy Abrams's group lost its lawsuit, the case still exposed major problems with the state's voting laws.
545d ago

Trump used the Secret Service to make money. Here's how taxpayers can respond.

A House committee revealed the former president's properties charged exorbitant rates for Secret Service agents who stayed there while protecting him or his family.
576d ago

Geoffrey Berman reveals how Donald Trump abused his firing power

Congress must protect against lawless presidents — or risk democracy itself.
620d ago

Biden's ongoing struggle with the utter hypocrisy of stock trading in Congress

Americans are fed up with corruption and the appearance of corruption in Congress.
640d ago

Trump discussing a coup with private citizens was a workaround federal law

There's a reason people giving official capacity advice to the president should be federal employees.