"Jeff Sands, U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's senior agricultural adviser and a former pesticide lobbyist, received a limited waiver from President Trump's ethics pledge.

White House counsel Don McGahn said in a memo that he gave the waiver at EPA's request for Sands, who lobbied for the global agribusiness company Syngenta AG before his government job.

Under the waiver, Sands is exempt from the pledge's lobbyist restrictions that bar political appointees from participating in issues they lobbied on within two years prior to joining the administration."

Kevin Bogardus reports for Greenwire February 23, 2018. [2]