Another White House lawyer is leaving the Trump administration.
James Schultz resigned as associate White House counsel last week, reports Politico. But he says he is not leaving to avoid the scandals swirling around President Donald Trump and his team.
Shultz will return to Philadelphia where he’ll work at a private practice. He says his decision to leave the White House was planned from the beginning and that White House attorney jobs are “typically year-to-about-18-months-type positions.”
Unlike other former members of the Trump administration, Schultz holds a decidedly favorable view of the president and the administration’s accomplishments.
“Some in the news media unfairly criticize this administration and take every opportunity to take shots, even when they’re not justified,” Schultz told Politico. He added, “There have been folks out there trying to make a name for themselves in that space by being critics in order to set themselves up for other positions down the road.”
Shultz was particularly critical of Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, who resigned in July. Shaub, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration since leaving his government position, famously ordered a series of bizarre tweets directed at Trump regarding his attempts to limit conflicts of interests in his business dealings.
“It became pretty evident early on that Shaub’s goal was to himself up to be a pundit when he left government,” Schultz said. “Nobody knew who Walter Shaub was before Donald Trump became president. … It was more about him than about ethics.”
Read Politico’s full report on Schultz’s exit here.