With the New Year came a fresh set of calls for Donald Trump to divest himself of his business in order to avoid the many obvious conflicts of interests as president.
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Bipartisan Group Calls on Donald Trump to Divest Business to Avoid Conflicts
On Monday, a bipartisan group of organizations and government officials sent a letter to Donald Trump urging him completely divestiture from his business interests saying that a complete divestment is the only way he can avoid facing extreme conflicts of interest and Emoluments Clause problems in the White House.
29 signees including five former Republican House members
The letter was signed by 29 signees including President Obama’s chief ethics lawyer Norm Eisen and five former Republican House members.
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The letter said, “As long as you retain ownership of The Trump Organization, you will ultimately be the financial beneficiary of business arrangements made by domestic and foreign interests who are seeking favorable treatment from your administration on policy matters.”
While acknowledging the steps Trump has taken over the last few weeks by announcing he will close his foundation and canceling a few of his more controversial deals in Brazil and Azerbaijan, the signees insist that these steps are insufficient and fail to address the primary conflict of owning a multinational organization while serving as president of the United State. And simply having his children run the business, as Trump has said he will do, would do nothing to resolve the conflicts.
Can not do both
The letter concludes by saying, “Respectfully, you cannot serve the country as president and also own a world-wide business enterprise, without seriously damaging the presidency. In order to protect the integrity and credibility of the presidency, we again urge you to divest your business enterprises into a true blind trust managed by an independent trustee, or the equivalent, in accordance with the guidelines of the Ethics in Government Act.”
The full letter is available here: http://www.democracy21.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Letter-to-Trump-conflicts-of-interest-1-2-17.pdf
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