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DOJ Order 1000: Ethics Program (January 23, 2025)

Human Resources Order DOJ 1200.1

DOJ 1200.1, Chapter 11-1 is replaced by DOJ Order 1000

Definitions

  • Agency Designee: An official who has authority to approve or disapprove ethics determinations and take other action required or permitted by federal statute, Office of Government Ethics regulations, or Department of Justice (DOJ or the Department) regulations or policies with respect to another employee. The Agency Designee is generally the Head of Component (as defined in this Order), unless otherwise delegated.
  • Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official: An official designated by the Attorney General to carry out any function of the Designated Agency Ethics Official in his or her absence or as necessary.
  • Component: All Offices, Boards, and Divisions (OBDs), and Bureaus, identified in 28 C.F.R. § 0.1.
  • Head of Component: The senior agency official who directs the administration and operations of a component, including the component’s ethics program. The Head of Component for United States Attorneys and employees of their offices and for United States Trustees and employees of their offices are the Director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys and the Director of the Executive Office for United States Trustees, respectively.
  • Departmental Ethics Office: The office established within the Justice Management Division to administer the ethics program for the Department under the direction of the Designated Agency Ethics Official and Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official.
  • Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official: An employee delegated authority by the Designated Agency Ethics Official to implement the ethics program in one or more specific components.
  • Designated Agency Ethics Official: An official designated by the Attorney General to administer, coordinate, and manage the Department’s ethics program.
  • Ethics Official: An employee assigned to assist the Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official in carrying out the Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official’s duties.
  • Formal Determination: An ethics decision that requires written approval or disapproval by the Agency Designee. Formal determinations include: waivers of financial conflicts of interests; determinations under the impartiality standard; acceptance of a travel reimbursement; awards; attendance at widely attended gatherings; and outside employment.
  • Lead Human Resources Official: The Director of the Human Resources Staff, Justice Management Division, or the head of an office that provides human resource services to a specific component.

Acronyms

  • ADAEO: Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official
  • AAG/A: Assistant Attorney General for Administration
  • AG: Attorney General
  • ASG: Associate Attorney General
  • DAAG PMP: Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Policy, Management, and Procurement
  • DAG: Deputy Attorney General
  • DAEO: Designated Agency Ethics Official
  • DDAEO: Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official
  • DEO: Departmental Ethics Office
  • DOJ: Department of Justice
  • OGE: Office of Government Ethics
  • OSC: Office of Special Counsel

I. Policy

The Department of the Justice (DOJ or Department) will implement and maintain a vigorous and effective ethics program. The program will comply with all federal ethics statutes and regulatory requirements and foster an ethical culture in the Department. The program will implement the bedrock principle that public service is a public trust.

A. The official with responsibility for implementing the Department’s ethics program is the Department’s Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO).

B. The Department’s ethics program is de-centralized. With oversight by the DAEO, each component is responsible for administering the component-level ethics program.

C. Each component must have an Agency Designee and a Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official (DDAEO). The Agency Designee, the DDAEO and, if applicable, ethics officials, will implement the component’s ethics program on a day-to-day basis.

D. Supervisors, as the employees most knowledgeable about individual subordinates’ work, must be available to help employees identify and, in coordination with the DDAEO, resolve ethics concerns and questions, and must themselves set an example of ethical behavior.

E. Compliance includes following all ethics legal authorities as well as avoiding the appearance of violating such authorities. The Department will support employees in this responsibility by making supervisors and DDAEOs available for consultation when an issue or concern regarding compliance arises. Consultation and compliance are critical in protecting employees from criminal sanctions and administrative discipline and in protecting the integrity of the Department and the public’s trust in it. Employees are responsible for their own compliance with the Department’s ethics program, including compliance with all federal criminal and civil ethics statutes and all ethics regulations and guidance issued by the Department, Office of Government Ethics (OGE), and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) regarding the Hatch Act’s restrictions on employees’ political activity.

F. In general, responsibilities described in this Order may be delegated. Delegation of agency designee or DDAEO responsibilities must be in writing and must be approved by the DAEO with a copy provided to Departmental Ethics Office (DEO). Delegations made before adoption of this Order continue in effect until modified.

II. Roles and Responsibilities

A. Attorney General

1. The Attorney General (AG) is responsible for setting the standard for ethical conduct at the Department and for maintaining and supporting the Department’s ethics program.

2. The AG, as head of the Department, “must appoint a Designated Agency Ethics Official.” 5 C.F.R. § 2638.104(a). The Assistant Attorney General for Administration (AAG/A) is the DAEO unless the AG designates another official.

3. The AG, as the head of the Department, “must appoint an Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official (ADEAO).” 5 C.F.R. § 2638.104(d). The Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Policy, Management, and Procurement (DAAGPMP) is the ADAEO unless the AG designates another official.

B. Designated Agency Ethics Official

1. The DAEO oversees the Department’s ethics program.

2. The DAEO approves each component’s DDAEO after nomination by the component’s Agency Designee. The DAEO may also approve an Alternate DDAEO for a component.

3. When necessary, the DAEO may take any action to implement the Department’s ethics program, including providing ethics advice and training to and reviewing and certifying financial disclosure reports of any employee. The DAEO may take such actions even when the DAEO has delegated authorities to a DDAEO, Alternate DDAEO, or Agency Designee

4. The DAEO is responsible for reviewing the ethics documents required of Presidentially Appointed, Senate-confirmed nominees to the Department. The DAEO signs all Ethics Agreements and is the Agency’s Ethics Official for the purpose of signing nominees’ financial disclosure reports.

C. Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official

The ADAEO performs any or all the responsibilities of the DAEO when the DAEO is unavailable or unable to perform DAEO duties, or the DAEO has delegated specific duties to the ADAEO.

D. Agency Designee

1. The Agency Designee is the management official in a component responsible for making final determinations whether an action is in the best interests of the component.

2. In each component, the Agency Designee is the Head of Component unless the Head of Component makes a delegation to another official in the component with the approval of the DAEO.

3. Each Agency Designee nominates the DDAEO for their component. The nomination must be approved by the DAEO, and a copy sent to DEO. 

4. The Deputy Attorney General (DAG), or delegee, is the Agency Designee for: the AG (except that only the President may grant waivers of conflicts of financial interests for the AG), employees in the offices of the AG and the DAG, the Associate Attorney General (ASG), the Solicitor General, and Heads of Components that report to the DAG.

5. The ASG is the Agency Designee for employees in the Office of the ASG, Heads of Components reporting to the ASG, and the DAG.

6. The DAG is the Agency Designee for all requests by employees to participate in the paid practice of law outside the Department and other outside employment generally prohibited by the Department’s supplemental regulations, and requests by employees for approval to participate in their official capacity in outside organizations.

7. An Agency Designee is responsible for making Formal Determinations. Formal Determinations require a two-step process: the Agency Designee (1) receives a recommendation, which will be in writing except in urgent circumstances from the DDAEO, and (2) issues an official, written, decision on the recommendation. In the rare circumstance when the DDAEO does not write a recommendation, the Agency Designee must record that the DDAEO was consulted and that the recommendation was accepted or rejected. An Agency Designee may determine that a Formal Determination is warranted in situations not specified in ethics regulations, for example, if an ethics matter is of high significance.

8. An Agency Designee certifies New Entrant, Annual and, where required, Termination Financial Disclosure Reports for employees in their component.

9. An Agency Designee should not serve the same role or have the same responsibilities as the DDAEO, and the same individual may not serve in both roles in a Component. Exceptions to this rule must be approved in writing by the DAEO upon the recommendation of the DEO Director and will be approved only in special circumstances when doing so is in the best interests of the component and the Department.

E. Departmental Ethics Office

1. As delegated by the DAEO, the Departmental Ethics Office (DEO) provides overall leadership of the Department’s ethics program.

2. The DEO Director serves as the DDAEO for the heads and staff of the offices of the AG, DAG, ASG, Solicitor General, Public Affairs, Legal Counsel, Tribal Justice, Attorney Recruitment and Management, and the Justice Management Division. The DEO Director may serve as DDAEO to other components as delegated by the DAEO.

3. The DEO Director advises DDAEOs on ethics issues regarding their Head of Component.

4. DEO provides advice and ethics training to, and collects and reviews financial disclosure reports for, the offices it serves.

5. DEO provides advice and guidance to DDAEOs throughout the Department in implementing the Department’s ethics program, including advice and guidance on: all federal criminal and civil ethics statutes; all ethics regulations, and guidance issued by the Department, Office of Government Ethics (OGE), and the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) regarding the Hatch Act. DEO also advises DDAEOs on the Anti-Nepotism Statute (5 U.S.C. § 3110); Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act (FGDA) (5 U.S.C. §7342) and other ethics-related statutes, consulting with the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, OGE, and OSC as necessary.

6. DEO administers the overall confidential and public financial disclosure program at the Department and oversees DDAEOs’ implementation of the program in their components.

7. DEO serves as the liaison between the Department and OGE and OSC as to Hatch Act matters.

8. DEO coordinates Department-wide data collection requests from the Department and OGE.

F. Deputy Designated Agency Ethics Official

1. Every component will have a DDAEO.

2. The DDAEO is the subject matter expert on ethics for the component they serve.

3. The DDAEO provides advice and counsel and ethics training; writes recommendations for Formal Determinations requiring Agency Designee approval; collects and reviews confidential and public financial disclosure reports; and coordinates with ethics officials in the component (when applicable).

4. DDAEOs must consult the DEO Director on ethics issues of high significance involving the Head of Component. Issues of high significance include matters in which there is a high likelihood of coverage in national news media, a high likelihood of Congressional interest, or any matter in which the Head of Component may have a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest.

5. The DDAEO assists DEO by collecting information from their components that is needed by DEO to resolve an ethics concern and compiling information from their component as part of Department-wide data collection requests by the Department and OGE.

6. A DDAEO may delegate specific responsibilities to an Alternate DDEAO and/or Ethics Official (if applicable to the component) with the written approval of the Agency Designee.

G. Ethics Official

1. An Agency Designee may designate Ethics Officials to assist the DDAEO in carrying out the DDAEO’s ethics responsibilities.

2. The scope of authority and responsibilities of an Ethics Official are determined by the Agency Designee in consultation with the DDAEO and the prospective Ethics Official’s supervisor.

H. Lead Human Resources Official

1. The Lead Human Resources Official timely provides the DDAEO whose component it serves with names of employees who are new, have assumed new supervisory positions, or are separating from the Department or transferring to another component within the Department.

2. In coordination with the DEO and using DEO-provided templates, the Lead Human Resources Official timely provides notices of ethics requirements in all offers of employment and to new supervisors.

Appendix

Additional Authorities

  • Executive Order 12674 as modified by E.O. 12731
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 2634, Executive Branch Financial Disclosure, Qualified Trusts, and Certificates of Divestiture
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 2635, Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 2636, Limitations on Outside Earned Income, Employment and Affiliations for Certain Non-Career Employees
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 2640, Interpretation, Exemptions and Waiver Guidance Concerning 18 U.S.C. 208 (Acts Affecting a Personal Financial Interest)
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 2641, Post-Employment Conflict of Interest Restrictions
  • 5 C.F.R. Part 3801, Supplemental Standards of Ethics Conduct for Employees of the Department of Justice
  • 28 C.F.R. Part 0, Justice Management Division

 

Updated January 30, 2025