Through a directive issued last week, President Biden has given his national-security, intelligence, and law-enforcement teams 200 days to make recommendations on how to stem corruption at home and abroad. “Fighting corruption is not just good governance,” Biden said in a statement. “It is self-defense. It is patriotism, and it’s essential to the preservation of our democracy and our future.”
One place where these corruption-fighting agencies are unlikely to look: among Biden’s own team.
Dozens of senior officials in the national-security space come from a handful of strategic consulting firms that profited from political connections during the Trump years. Potential conflicts of interest in key national-security fields like Middle East policy, arms sales, and ransomware throw into question the capacity of America to lead globally on ethics and good governance.
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