CONTACT: Jordan Libowitz
202-408-5565 | [email protected]

Washington — Former Congressman Mickey Edwards (R-OK) is joining the board of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Edwards served as Representative for Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district for 16 years, and has been a leading conservative voice for decades, including as a founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation and as national chairman of the American Conservative Union.

“I am excited to join CREW’s important bipartisan work to bring accountability to all parts of our government. In my decades working on government reform, I have never seen a time with more challenges to our democratic norms and more of a need for strong checks both inside and outside of government than right now. I look forward to working with CREW to help bring about desperately needed change.”

CREW also announced that Zephyr Teachout and Richard Painter are rejoining the board. Teachout is a Fordham Law School professor, constitutional law expert, and dedicated anti-corruption activist. Painter was the chief ethics lawyer in the Bush administration, was a founding board member of the conservative campaign finance organization Take Back Our Republic and is now a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School.

“We are thrilled to have Mickey joining the board during this critical time for our democracy,” said CREW Board Chair Norman Eisen. “He is a tireless crusader for responsible government and democratic values, and he brings invaluable leadership to the board. With Richard and Zephyr also rejoining the board, CREW is stacked with ethics expertise from across the political spectrum and is even better prepared to take on the Trump administration’s culture of corruption. With Mickey’s unflagging commitment to government reform and Zephyr’s and Richard’s widely recognized leadership on government ethics, they will help lead a bipartisan effort to ensure an ethical Washington in the face of the Trump administration’s unprecedented conflict of interest and transparency issues.”

“I’m proud to rejoin CREW’s Board to continue working to hold our government accountable to the American public,” said Teachout. “In this age of blatant corruption and abuse of government resources, our work at CREW has never been more important.”

Painter said, “I am thrilled to rejoin the Board of CREW, and I look forward to working with my colleagues at CREW on our bipartisan efforts to reform ethics in all three branches of our federal government.”