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.
The article targeted Duffy’s recent Department of Transportation project, a YouTube series titled “The Great American Road Trip.” Kathleen Clark, an attorney and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was described by the NYT simply as someone “who specializes in government ethics.”
Weighing in on the fact that Duffy’s 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 “gifts” from the series sponsors.
“Gifts to the secretary’s family are absolutely not gifts to the department,” she said. “This is really gift laundering … This is an incredibly corrupt endeavor, and it’s dangerous, because it affects public safety.”
But the NYT left out a few key details when describing Clark’s credentials.
Clark, in her capacity as an attorney, served as counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1991-1993 — during then-Sen. Joe Biden’s (D-DE) tenure as committee chair (1987-1995).
The Washington University Professor has also served on the board of directors (as Secretary) of American Oversight, Inc. — a nonprofit organization that also claims to be nonpartisan but has a clear bias against President Donald Trump — since its formation in 2017.
The group’s listed “priorities,” according to its own website, are described as follows: “We were founded in 2017 in response to the unprecedented challenges that the Trump administration posed to our nation’s democratic ideals and institutions.”
Headlines posted on the American Oversight Inc.’s website in the last several weeks read like a typical left-leaning advocacy group:
- ICE’s work with local police departments is being kept secret
- American Oversight launches investigation into Trump admin’s politicized prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center
- Statement from American Oversight and historians on today’s hearing to block Trump’s efforts to evade presidential records law
Clark’s page on Washington University’s 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’s administration or on the president himself.
- Kash Patel’s $800000 Trump Media Award Raises New Conflict Questions
- Musk’s Inexcusable Conflicts
- Trump Hired Musk as a ‘Special Government Employee.’ Here’s What That Means
- Elon Musk Has to Fill Out a Public Financial Disclosure Legal Experts Say. Where Is It?
- Dr. Oz: How His Millions Collide With Medicare
- A Masters Tradition Unlike Any Other: Gifting Tickets to Government Officials
- Qatar gifting Trump $400M luxury jet raises ethical and legal concerns
- Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it.
And Duffy brings her count up to nine.
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’s social media footprint is … just the Left foot.
Her X handle, which hasn’t posted since 2024, directs would-be followers to lefty-haven BlueSky — but her old posts include a slew of criticisms aimed at Trump ally Elon Musk. One thread 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 from January 6-related cases over his wife’s decision to hang a Revolutionary War-era flag at their home.
