WASHINGTON, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Walter M. Shaub Jr. announced his resignation as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Thursday, nearly six months before the scheduled end of his five-year term.
Shaub has repeatedly challenged U.S. President Donald Trump over his administration's potential ethics violations, and on his Twitter Thursday he said to step down effectively from July 19th.
As director of the ethics watchdog, Shaub has kept urging Trump to divest from his business practices and called out a senior Trump adviser for violating ethics rules.
Though his outspokenness provoked the ire of administration officials, the career civil servant said he was not leaving under pressure during an interview with the Washington Post Thursday.
Shortly after sending out his resignation letter, Shaub re-tweeted a press release published by the Campaign Legal Center, saying that he is set to work as senior at the Washington-based nonprofit legal advocacy group.
"In working with the current administration, it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program," Shaub said in the release.
Responding to Shaub's resignation, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said: "The White House accepts Mr. Shaub's resignation." She added Trump would nominate a successor soon.
An independent agency within the executive branch of the federal government, the ethics office is responsible for promoting and protecting laws intended to prevent conflicts of interest by government officials, but its enforcement authority is limited.
