Trump White House ethics lawyer resigns

A White House ethics lawyer has resigned -- but it's apparently not out of protest.

Politico reports that White House attorney James Schultz, who has worked for the past year on ethics and financial disclosure issues for White House staff members, resigned last week.

However, anyone expecting Schultz to take shots at the Trump White House on his way out might be disappointed, as Schultz defended the president's ethics record during an interview with Politico.

"We've been more onerous in making people divest and recuse than the agencies would have required," Schultz said. "Some in the news media unfairly criticize this administration and take every opportunity to take shots, even when they're not justified... There have been folks out there trying to make a name for themselves in that space by being critics in order to set themselves up for other positions down the road."

Schultz says that he is instead returning to the private sector in a move that he had long ago discussed with White House Counsel Don McGahn.

"I was interested in continuing with private practice and saw this as a tremendous opportunity to go serve and get things up and running and the plan was to move on about this time," he said. "These are typically year-to-about-18-months-type positions."