--- title: White Houses Chooses David Apol as Interim Ethics Chief description: David Apol will temporarily replace Walter Shaub was the director of the Office of Government Ethics. canonical: https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/ author: Madeline Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-21T20:37:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:40:45.903Z article:section: Politics og:title: The White House Has Chosen a New (Temporary) Ethics Chief og:description: David Apol will serve as interim head of the Office of Government Ethics og:url: https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1089e63e0cce079e/6988d6bf096a94136769edc7/apol-ethics-office-dc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Government Ethics Director og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The White House Has Chosen a New (Temporary) Ethics Chief twitter:description: David Apol will serve as interim head of the Office of Government Ethics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1089e63e0cce079e/6988d6bf096a94136769edc7/apol-ethics-office-dc.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The White House Has Chosen a New (Temporary) Ethics Chief by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Jul 21, 2017 8:37 PM UTC  Walter Shaub, Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics in Washington, DC on June 8, 2017. Walter Shaub, Director of the United States Office of Government Ethics in Washington, DC on June 8, 2017.Linda Davidson—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Jul 21, 2017 8:37 PM UTC President [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4863802/chris-christie-says-donald-trump-jr-russia-collusion/) has tapped David J. Apol, a veteran lawyer, to temporarily serve as the chief of the Office of Government Ethics. The ethics agency confirmed the news on Friday, according to the [Associated Press.](http://wtop.com/government/2017/07/trump-names-lawyer-as-new-acting-ethics-chief/) Apol will replace [Walter Shaub](http://time.com/4847547/top-government-ethics-official-resigns-after-white-house-clashes/), who resigned earlier this month. Shaub regularly criticized Trump’s refusal to divest his businesses, among other ethical issues. Apol, who has worked on [ethics](http://time.com/4671007/kellyanne-conway-government-ethics-discipline-ivanka-trump/) programs for other federal agencies in the past, said he “is honored to continue his 30 years of service to the ethics community,” according to the AP. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/"},"headline":"The White House Has Chosen a New (Temporary) Ethics Chief","datePublished":"2017-07-21T20:37:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:40:45.903Z","description":"David Apol will serve as interim head of the Office of Government Ethics","url":"https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1089e63e0cce079e/6988d6bf096a94136769edc7/apol-ethics-office-dc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeline Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1089e63e0cce079e/6988d6bf096a94136769edc7/apol-ethics-office-dc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Government Ethics Director","caption":"Government Ethics Director","creditText":"Linda Davidson—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4869068/white-house-ethics-chief-david-apol/","name":"The White House Has Chosen a New (Temporary) Ethics Chief"}}]}] ```