OMB Records of Mark Paoletta Communications or Ethics Documents Related to Harlan Crow

Records released by the Office of Management and Budget in response to American Oversight’s request for General Counsel Mark Paoletta’s communications regarding billionaire Harlan Crow, or any related ethics waivers or forms from January 2018 through January 2021.

The records include emails in which Paoletta sought approval or informed an ethics officer about the 2019 trip to Indonesia — which also included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — reported on by ProPublica in April 2023, as well as a 2019 trip to Jackson Hole.

On May 21, 2019, Paoletta emailed the OMB ethics officer explaining the upcoming trip to Bali with Crow and “several of their friends.” Paoletta said that he and his wife had been friends with the Crows since before he joined the Trump administration, and had “vacationed with them at their summer place in the Adirondacks every summer since 2014.” He added that Crow was “not a registered lobbyist and has no business before OMB.”

In May 2020, the ethics officer emailed the Office of Government Ethics asking for guidance on how to value travel on private planes. The officer then emailed the guidance to Paoletta, and asked him for further information about his past travel. Paoletta provided the dates and flights of the Indonesia, and mentions another trip to Jackson Hole the previous September.