Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT)

Michael Chamberlain is the director of Protect the Public’s Trust. He was previously a communications official at the Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos during the first Trump administration. Before that, he led Nevada communications for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. ³

Background

Protect the Public’s Trust researches, analyzes, and publicizes a wide range of broad social and economic issues affecting the citizens at the national, state, and local level. ⁴

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, said after its 2021 launch, “It was started by a group of concerned citizens who are interested in ensuring clean government and looking out for corruption, misconduct and potential conflicts of interest among employees in the executive branch.” ³

Chamberlain was previously a communications official at the Department of Education under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during the first Trump administration. ³

PPT claims to be a group of retired and former public servants with decades of experience in government who saw firsthand how too many government employees, both political appointees and career employees, benefit privately from public office. PPT, claiming it is made up of former officials who played by the rules, calls for a government free from conflicts of interest operating without political interference or favoritism. ⁵

Activities

After its founding in 2021, Protect the Public’s Trust seemed to largely focus on the Biden administration Department of Energy and the Department of Interior, as it warned about the potential ethical lapses by officials that included then-Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and then-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, as well as other senior officials in the departments. ³

Some of the PPT complaints led to internal probes, including an Interior Department Inspector General finding that an employee violated ethics rules by meeting with a former lobbyist employer.  ⁶

The PPT claimed in 2023 that the Department of Health and Human Services and its sub-agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Health (NIH), have undermined science by disregarding the principles of scientific integrity and violating scientific integrity policies. PPT claims that the CDC failed to monitor or track serious, known side effects of COVID-19 vaccines, cited misleading data on childhood mortality from COVID-19, and violated scientific integrity policies by recommending vaccines for children under five years based on political, not scientific, considerations. ⁷

The organization issued a transparency report on the Biden administration cabinet after his first year in office, by evaluating the public calendars of the Cabinet-level agencies on the criteria of accessibility, quality, completeness, and timeliness. Only the Environmental Protection Agency received an A for transparency. Agencies receiving a B included the Department of Labor and Department of Defense. Agencies receiving a C included the Department of Education, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the Interior Department. The U.S. Department of Agriculture received an F for transparency. So did the Energy Department, the Commerce Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Justice Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Small Business Administration, the Transportation Department the United States Agency for International Development, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. ⁸

In July 2022, Protect the Public’s Trust filed an inspector general complaint against Biden administration Interior Secretary Debra Haaland alleging Haaland reported on her financial disclosure form that she had no bank account and essentially claimed to have had zero assts at a time when she was earning a $174,000 congressional salary and living in a $1 million residence. During her nomination, she only reported a $175 payment from the Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico. The watchdog reported that after she was married, she reported assets of between $970,000 and $2.125 million. ⁹

PPT’s Financial Transparency Project seeks to make mandatory financial disclosure information more easily available to the public. In 2023, PPT argued that the current level of transparency is inadequate and that the entire financial disclosure process needs to be reformed. In March 2022, PPT submitted a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) urging them to fix the financial disclosure process. PPT has identified known appointees at some of the biggest federal departments to compare them with officials listed on the OGE website. PPT claims the results of this comparison show a major gap in transparency with only 23 percent of financial disclosures available via Office of Government Ethics. ¹⁰

In June 2022, the organization also uncovered emails showing extensive communications between Biden administration Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s office with left-leaning environmental and climate activist and lobbying organizations, that include the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and other organization to discuss matters such as a coal investment ban. ¹¹

PPT’s Ethics Waiver Tracker is continually updated as PPT monitors the Office of Government Ethics’ website, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and document searches. In its March 2022 report, PPT documented 19 FOIA hidden waivers. PPT claims that while the Biden administration pledged to be the most ethical administration, it had already granted 50 waivers and impartiality decisions in its first year, compared to 73 total granted during the four years of the Trump administration. PPT further claims that an unprecedented number of the waivers granted in the Biden administration have occurred in the agencies and that only 14 percent of the administration’s agencies have maintained full compliance to ethics obligations. ¹²

In January 2023, Protect the Public’s Trust filed a transparency lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), claiming that NARA wrongfully withheld records subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In August 2022, PPT submitted two FOIA requests for records related to communications between White House officials and acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall. PPT claims that while NARA refused to release those records, they later demanded that representatives of the last six administrations search for and turn over any Presidential or Vice-Presidential records within their personal documents. PPT further claims that the American public’s trust in its government continues to decline when organizations like NARA act based on their own set of rules. ¹³

In November 2025, Protect the Public’s Trust filed a federal complaint with the Justice Department Civil Rights Division, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services against the Dayton, Ohio Public School District, alleging it violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to play in girls’ sports and concealing their biological sex from parents. ¹⁴

In January 2026, Protect the Public Trust filed a complaint against Wisconsin public schools over their alleged violation of anti-discrimination laws. The complaint was issued following the discovery of the district’s continued adherence to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices, outlining plans to give increased opportunity and access to those of specific ethnic backgrounds. ¹⁵

In May 2026, the PPT made a complaint against the Penn State Dickenson Law School over its “Strategic Plan Update.” The group alleged the school is continuing to impose DEI policies in admissions, hiring and curriculum. The complaint says the Penn State law school was “quietly attempting to violate civil rights laws.” ¹⁶

Funding

Donors Trust, a conservative-leaning provider of donor advised funds that direct the philanthropy of other individuals, gave $200,000 to Protect the Public’s Trust in 2023. ⁴

Self-Description Controversy

HuffPost reported that in its early days, Protect the Public’s Trust described itself in public records requests as a “501(c)(3) non-profit organization with supporters and members of the public who seek a transparent, ethical and impartial government that makes decisions in the best interests of all Americans, not former employers and special interests.” However, HuffPost, which is a left-leaning outlet, reported in its May 2023 article that the organization never filed a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service, which is required of 501(c)(3) nonprofits. ⁶

By September 2021, HuffPost reported the group stopped calling itself a “501(c)(3)” and called itself simply a “non-profit organization.” In a lawsuit against the State Department in January 2022, the group called itself “an unincorporated association of retired and former public servants and concerned citizens that is dedicated to restoring public trust in government.” Then in January 2023, it called itself “a collection of individuals.”  ¹⁷

HuffPost further reported the group’s publicized address was a packing and shipping store in Washington, D.C.  ⁶

The organization’s first Form 990 was issued for the year 2023, under the official name Government Oversight and Education Inc. doing business as Protect the Public’s Trust, and based in Fairfax, Virginia. ¹⁸  According to ProPublica, the organization was recognized as tax exempt in May 2023. ²

People

As of 2026, Michael Chamberlain was the director of Protect the Public’s Trust. He was previously a communications official at the Department of Education under Secretary Betsy DeVos. Before that, he led Nevada communications for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. ³ He also ran a boutique communications and public relations firm for businesses, nonprofits, and political candidates in Nevada. ⁵

As of 2026, Chamberlain was also the president of the board of directors for PPT. Morgan Yardis was the secretary of the board. Chris Marston was the treasurer of the board. Timothy Williams was a board member. ¹⁹