IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

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

18d 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.
74d 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.
118d 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.
154d 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.
184d ago

Geoffrey Berman reveals how Donald Trump abused his firing power

Congress must protect against lawless presidents — or risk democracy itself.
229d 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.
248d 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.
274d ago

Claiming Merrick Garland can't prosecute Trump is ill-conceived at best

Some legal commentators argue that the Justice Department could have a conflict of interest because prosecuting Trump could appear to be political.
286d ago

The Jan. 6 committee needs to follow the money

The people who financed the insurrection to keep Trump in office need to be exposed.
407d ago

Trump's campaign is sitting on a fortune built on lies

Americans are paying good money for the privilege of autocracy.
448d ago

Trump's financial conflict of interest strategies are alive and well in Congress

Members of Congress know a lot of information that the rest of us don’t know, and some of this information can be useful for stock trading.