Watchdog group alleges Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins violated ethics rules

From Investigate Midwest:

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has maintained “close ties” — including substantial bonuses before her confirmation — with her former employers in an alleged violation of federal laws and her ethics agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a report released Thursday from a nonprofit watchdog group.

The Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C.-based group focused on campaign finance reform, filed its complaint with the USDA’s Office of Inspector General. Last year, President Trump fired the office’s longtime head and installed a senior advisor to Brooke Rollins.

The center said public officials are expected to act impartially.

“The public has a right to know that government officials are using their positions in service of the public’s best interest and not favoring the interests of their former employers or clients,” the legal center wrote in its complaint.

The USDA defended Rollins in an unsigned statement to Investigate Midwest on Friday.

“Secretary Rollins has fully complied with all applicable ethics requirements, per the Department’s Office of Ethics, and received the necessary approvals,” the department said. “The allegations made by CLC are a completely frivolous fishing expedition.”

Official appearances at former employers’ events

When she became agriculture secretary, Rollins agreed to, for one year, not “participate personally and substantially” with organizations she used to run, including the America First Policy Institute and the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Rollins helped create the America First Policy Institute to push Trump’s agenda after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

The one-year gap is governed by a federal regulation meant to prevent the appearance of favoritism for a public official’s previous employers and clients. Government ethics guidelines state that officials, while acting in an official capacity, should not use former employers’ events as a “preferred forum for repeated speeches.”

However, according to the Campaign Legal Center, Rollins made at least four appearances at events hosted by those organizations during her first year in office.

In February 2025, about a week after her confirmation, she was the keynote speaker at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual summit. She spoke at length about U.S. agriculture.

In a video available on YouTube and referenced in the center’s complaint, she referenced Justice Clarence Thomas swearing her in and said, “When I left seven years ago and walked away from (the foundation) — well, I mean, not really; I never really go away, do I? But officially walked away to join the last White House. …”

In May 2025, Rollins appeared at the America First Policy Institute’s annual summit. The institute’s X social media account tagged her official government account to promote the speech.

In October 2025, Rollins appeared at an institute event focused on global energy. She was introduced as the agriculture secretary and asked for her “unique perspective at USDA,” according to the center’s complaint. The video is available on the institute’s website.

In her response, she seemed to include herself and Energy Secretary Chris Wright as part of the institute: “This is the importance of … organizations like America First and Texas Public Policy and others, that we really are at the front lines of not just playing offense, and we” — gesturing at Wright — “are able to play offense now.”

Rollins’ husband is an executive at an oil and gas company, according to her financial disclosure form.

In November 2025, Rollins appeared in her official capacity at a three-day institute gala. Along with other Trump officials, the institute’s website referred to her as a member of “AFPI’s cabinet.”

According to the ethics agreement Rollins signed, she agreed to resign from her position at the Texas foundation and the institute.

Neither the foundation nor the institute responded immediately to a request for comment Friday.

A large bonus before Rollins’ confirmation

Rollins’ nomination for agriculture secretary was publicly reported in November 2024. Around that same time, Rollins received substantial bonuses from the America First Policy Institute, according to financial disclosures and tax forms cited in the complaint.

In 2024, the institute paid Rollins a $300,000 bonus, according to the institute’s tax forms. Her bonuses in 2023 and 2022 were $50,000.

Other institute employees received six-figure bonuses in 2024, but Rollins’ was by far the largest, according to the institute’s tax forms. With the bonus, her total compensation for 2024 was more than $800,000.

However, in her financial disclosure form, she reported more than $1 million in “salary and bonus” from the institute. She signed the form Jan. 8, 2025, about a month before her confirmation.

“The timing of both of these substantial payments suggests that Rollins was awarded additional income after AFPI became aware of Rollins’ consideration for her government position,” the complaint alleges. Payments such as these raise “a legitimate concern that the employee may not act impartially.”

Federal guidelines dictate officials who receive such payments must recuse themselves from matters involving their former employer for at least two years.

Trump fired the longtime USDA inspector general last year

One of Trump’s first acts in office was to fire more than a dozen inspectors general, the independent government watchdogs tasked with rooting out waste and fraud.

The USDA’s inspector general, Phyllis Fong, was nominated for the position by President George W. Bush and had been in the position since 2002. After she defied Trump’s order by showing up to work, security agents escorted her out of her office, according to Reuters.

A federal judge found it was “obvious” Trump violated the law. Presidents need to provide Congress with “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons,” before removing inspectors general.

However, the judge did not reinstate them because they could not show they were irreparably harmed. “If the IGs were reinstated, the President could lawfully remove them after 30 days by providing the required notice and rationale to Congress,” the judge, a Biden appointee, ruled.

The new inspector general for the USDA is John Walk. In the first Trump administration, he served as a White House counsel. Rollins served in the White House at the same time, as a policy advisor. Between July 2025 and his confirmation in January, Walk was a senior advisor to Rollins, according to his USDA biography.

At his nomination hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar asked Walk, given he has only held political roles under Trump while working for the government, how he would “maintain the necessary objectivity required to conduct meaningful oversight” in his new role. Walk replied, “I will follow all laws and regulations regarding conflicts of interest and impairments of judgments.”

At the same hearing, Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, asked Walk if he had the “strength of character” to blow the whistle if unethical behavior was happening at USDA. Walk said he would “follow the statute” and “fulfill my obligations to Congress.”

Delaney Marsco, the Campaign Legal Center’s director for ethics, said in a statement the organization is hoping for a full-fledged investigation.

“We have a strong hope that a result of our complaint will be accountability and appropriate treatment of the recusals moving forward, whether that accountability comes from public awareness or a formal investigation,” she said.

The inspector general’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.