\n<\/p>\n
In an effort to smear Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, The New York Times relied on input from a supposedly impartial authority on ethics in government. Supposedly.<\/p>\n
The article targeted Duffy\u2019s recent Department of Transportation project, a YouTube series titled \u201cThe Great American Road Trip.\u201d Kathleen Clark, an attorney and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was described by the NYT simply as someone \u201cwho specializes in government ethics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weighing in on the fact that Duffy\u2019s family members were brought along for the ride and featured in the YouTube series, Clark argued that because those family members were not officially contracted to the DOT and were taking part in the project anyway, they were essentially receiving \u201cgifts\u201d from the series sponsors.<\/p>\n
\u201cGifts to the secretary\u2019s family are absolutely not gifts to the department,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is really gift laundering \u2026 This is an incredibly corrupt endeavor, and it\u2019s dangerous, because it affects public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the NYT left out a few key details when describing Clark\u2019s credentials.<\/p>\n
Clark, in her capacity as an attorney, served as counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1991-1993 \u2014 during then-Sen. Joe Biden\u2019s (D-DE) tenure as committee chair (1987-1995).<\/p>\n
The Washington University Professor has also served on the board of directors (as Secretary) of American Oversight, Inc. \u2014 a nonprofit organization that also claims to be nonpartisan but has a clear bias against President Donald Trump \u2014 since its formation in 2017.<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s listed \u201cpriorities,\u201d according to its own website<\/a>, are described as follows: \u201cWe were founded in 2017 in response to the unprecedented challenges that the Trump administration posed to our nation\u2019s democratic ideals and institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Headlines posted on the American Oversight Inc.\u2019s website in the last several weeks read like a typical left-leaning advocacy group:<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s page on Washington University\u2019s website adds another layer to the story: while her history up to 2017 includes several ethics-based academic publications, she has none listed since that year. In addition, she has no media listings prior to 2025. But beginning in February of 2025, she has been sought out several times to provide comments to various outlets. Every one came after President Trump was sworn in to begin his second term. Every one is an attack either on someone serving in Trump\u2019s administration or on the president himself.<\/p>\n And Duffy brings her count up to nine.<\/p>\n And while one might be able to excuse away some of that by pointing out the fact that even some Republicans raised ethical questions about some of those same topics, Clark\u2019s social media footprint is \u2026 just the Left foot.<\/p>\n Her X handle, which hasn\u2019t posted since 2024, directs would-be followers to lefty-haven BlueSky \u2014 but her old posts include a slew of criticisms aimed at Trump ally Elon Musk. One thread<\/a> from August 2024 bashes Vice President JD Vance over a 2021 interview. She reposted several comments comparing Trump to former President Richard Nixon and trashing the Supreme Court over its ruling on presidential immunity. And she criticized Justice Samuel Alito for refusing to recuse himself<\/a> from January 6-related cases over his wife\u2019s decision to hang a Revolutionary War-era flag at their home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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