WASHINGTON Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has allowed a political appointee to maintain an employment relationship with an arm of a hostile foreign government while he works at the federal agency, according to a watchdog group.
Records received from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed a year ago by Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT), show that when Christopher Frey was the EPA’s deputy assistant administrator for science policy, he was allowed to take a leave of absence as an adjunct professorship at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) rather than resigning.
Frey was subsequently nominated to lead the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at the EPA and during the confirmation hearing, he indicated that upon confirmation to the new Senate-confirmed position, he would resign from his position at Hong Kong University, according to a press release.
“It does seem a little bit concerning, especially with the fact that China appears to be a hostile nation, to allow him to work for an entity that is essentially an arm of that government while holding a position within the United States government,” said Michael Chamberlain, director of PPT.
Instead of insisting that Frey resign from his unpaid position at Hong Kong University, Chamberlain said Frey is permitted to recuse himself from matters that have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interests of the University.
“There have been several instances of professors who worked in the United States being compromised by the government of China and who potentially gave intellectual property and other types of information to the Chinese government," he said. "We're not saying that has happened here but during the previous administration, they had a program within the Department of Justice that looked into ties of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government with universities.”
In other records released in response to the same request, PPT found that acting associate administrator for The Office of Air and Radiation, Joe Goffman, advised a subordinate to take a meeting with a group from his former employer, Harvard University, after he recused himself from a proposed meeting.
“By giving his subordinates direction to take the meeting, he involved himself in that matter involving his former employer,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline. “We think that fairly clearly demonstrates a violation of recusal obligations. It appears he admitted as such because when someone else brought this potential violation to his attention, he reached out to ethics officials and asked them to ‘cure’ the violation.”
PPT filed a complaint with the Office of the Inspector General about the incident involving Goffman.
"We've not had an update on that complaint and generally inspectors general do not comment on ongoing or pending investigations so we wouldn't expect to hear anything until any investigation that they undertake is complete," he added.