There
is no requirement for the President to use a blind trust to avoid
conflict of interest. Almost all other federal employees are required
to divest themselves of potential conflicts. The President of the
United State has traditionally resigned from any position - e.g.
being a part of a legal firm, positions on corporate boards - that
might cause a conflict and put business assets into a blind trust.
"A
blind trust, as discussed in this report, is a device employed by a
federal official to hold, administer and manage the private financial
assets, investments and ownership of the official, and his or her
spouse and dependent children, as a method of conflict of interest
avoidance. In establishing a qualified blind trust upon the approval
of the appropriate supervisory ethics entity, the official transfers,
without restriction, control and management of private assets to an
independent trustee who may not communicate information about the
identity of the holdings in the trust to the official. The trust is
considered “blind” because eventually, through the sale of
transferred assets and the purchase of new ones, the public officer
will be shielded from knowledge of the identity of the specific
assets in the trust. Without such knowledge, conflict of interest
issues would be avoided because no particular asset in the trust
could act as an influence upon the official duties that the officer
performs for the Government."
In the past, the
President-elect established his blind trust during the transition
period. Guess who has had no such trust. You guessed it,
President-elect Donald Trump. He says that his children are going to
run his businesses. Does that sound like divesting yourself of
potential conflicts of interest? It doesn't, especially when you
have your children present at a meeting with a foreign dignitary.
The Washington
Post reported on a CNN interview of Rudolph Giuliani by Jake Tapper.
Here is an excerpt from that report.
"Good-government
types were already crying foul over Donald Trump's intention to put
his children in charge of his business during his presidency. And now
that those same children are on Trump's transition team, these groups
are even
more concerned about conflicts of interest.
Trump
loyalist Rudolph W. Giuliani seemed to acknowledge in a CNN interview
Sunday that it wasn't an ideal set-up. But then he offered a
remarkable defense. "He would basically put his children out of
work if — and they'd have to go start a whole new business, and
that would set up the whole — set up new problems,"Giuliani
said on "State of the Union." Giuliani added: "It's
kind of unrealistic to say you're going to take the business away
from the three people who are running it and give it to some
independent person. And remember, they can't work in the government
because of the government rule against nepotism. So you would be
putting them out of work."
I could be
totally heartless and say 'oh, let's have a pity party for Trump's
adult children who can probably go a good four years on the change in
their pockets', but I won't be quite that bad. I will admit that I
don't care what Trump's children do during his presidency. They are
adults. They can find jobs like the rest of us commoners. They
weren't elected and providing for their employment is not the
responsibility of the US government or the American people.
I am more
concerned about the consistent resistance Donald Trump has to
anything which avoids a conflict of interest. I'm not surprised. He
has consistently demonstrated that he believes himself above the law.
Hail, King Trump!
Bheadh
ri Trump,
beidh mé ag
iarraidh i gcoinne tú.
Bheadh
ri Trump,
beidh mé ag
iarraidh i gcoinne tú.
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