美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Ethics Chief Was Behind Those Tweets About Trump, Records Show

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: 

One of the odder stories of the last month came from what is typically a quiet corner of the federal bureaucracy - the Office of Government Ethics¹. As debate heated up over the potential influence of Donald Trump²'s vast business empire over his decisions as president, the OGE took to Twitter with a series of Trump-style tweets congratulating him on the decision to divest³, except he hadn't and still hasn't specifically promised that.

One thing we didn't know was who at the OGE was the author of these tweets until now, thanks to NPR's reporter Alina Selyukh. Alina, tell us about who it is and how you found that out.

ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE⁴: The tweets came from the director of the Office of Government Ethics. His name is Walter Shaub. He's an Obama appointee. His term expires in January 2018. And the way we found out that he's the author of the tweets is by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.

I requested emails and other communications related to the tweet storm that was really bizarre in November. And what we received was 365 pages of documents and requests and emails, some of which do indicate direct authorship of the tweets by the director.

SIEGEL: And can you tell us what sort of things you saw in all these records that you received?

SELYUKH: Well, so specifically on the authorship of the tweets, there are two emails from the director on the morning of the tweet storm, which was November 30. First, he sends a note to the chief of staff with all nine of the tweets that ended up taking internet by storm. And a few minutes later, he sends out a link to the chief of staff again. It's to the legal document that's referenced in one of the tweets. And then he writes (reading) get all of these tweets posted as soon as humanly possible.

I've reached out to the OGE today to see if they wanted to comment on this and also to clarify why the tweets were taken down later that day before they were reposted. They haven't commented.

SIEGEL: What else did you learn, if anything, from these 365 pages worth of emails and messages?

SELYUKH: Yeah, so the OGE redacted about 15 of 365 pages. And a big chunk⁵ of the disclosures that I got were media inquiries⁶ like mine for freedom of information requests but also comments about the tweets. There were a lot of concerns or worries that this was a hack⁷ of the OGE. And there's actually an email from a Twitter government affairs official in D.C. trying to figure out if OGE was in fact hacked⁸.

And then there are dozens and dozens of messages from just members of the public. It was quite fascinating. People wrote emails, letters. One guy even mailed in a postcard of what looked like Alexander Hamilton with a black eye.

People have really strong opinions about Trump and conflicts of interest and the need to uphold ethics standards. Some of them were critical of OGE and the tweets, and others were really encouraged by the sort of candid⁹ conversation that the tweets started. Most of them encouraged OGE to hold up ethics standards for the Trump administration.

SIEGEL: And the reason that people suspected a hack of OGE was that these tweets were so unusual to be coming out of that office.

SELYUKH: Usually the OGE doesn't air its opinions publicly, and they were just really uncharacteristic in their style. They had lots of question marks. There was one bravo. There was a phrase - divestiture¹⁰ is good for America. And so that made people suspect that this was sort of a rogue¹¹ employee or a hacker¹², and it was in fact the director of the OGE himself.

SIEGEL: That's NPR's Alina Selyukh. Alina, thank you.

SELYUKH: Thanks.

1 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 divest   

v.脱去，剥除

参考例句：

• I cannot divest myself of the idea.我无法消除那个念头。
• He attempted to divest himself of all responsibilities for the decision.他力图摆脱掉作出该项决定的一切责任。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

6 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

8 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

9 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。

10 divestiture   

n.剥夺

参考例句：

• The court found divestiture to be necessary in preventing a monopoly.法庭发现在防止垄断方面进行资产剥离是必要的。
• Rapid progress was made in the divestiture of radio paging assets from the P & T sectors and the restructuring on a nationwide basis.全国邮电无线寻呼资产剥离、改制重组工作取得了较大进展。

11 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

12 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。