How Trump Could Make a Mint Off the White House: conflict of interest laws don't apply

[pnwmom]

to the President or to the Vice President. (That's why Cheney was never called to account for his Halliburton dealings.)

Up till now, Presidents were only putting their assets into blind trusts, or into mutual funds (like Obama) as a sign of good faith -- not because the law requires them to divest. It doesn't.

This makes it all the more critical that Trump release his tax returns. But there is almost no pressure for him to do so. Why is the media continuing to give him free air time?

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/14/3785467/trump-conflicts-of-interest/

Every employee of the executive branch is required by law to avoid taking part in decisions that might directly affect their economic interests. But these laws do not apply to the president or the vice president. In practice, previous presidents have followed those rules anyway, putting their major holdings in blind trusts to avoid any real or perceived conflict of interest.

SNIP

Stuart C. Gilman, a longtime employee at the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) who now advises countries around the globe on anti-corruption efforts, said that the only analogous situation he has seen is disgraced former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. But even Berlusconi’s efforts to appear above-board were more substantive than what Trump has proposed. “He’d owned all of the private media in Italy, became prime minister, and then controlled public media,” Gilman said. “Initially, his senior judicial adviser came to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics about what can be done to resolve conflict of interest. We recommended he get a true blind trust.”

Having a president whose personal wealth could be impacted by his policy decisions presents a huge potential problem, according to Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “Public officials need to be making decisions that are in the public interest, that are in the best interest of the American people,” he said. “Not decisions that are in their own financial interests.”

While Trump has not released his tax returns since 1981, he has filed a mandatory personal financial disclosure statement, listing his current holdings and estimating their value. The 104-page document identifies hundreds of Trump-run companies — foreign and domestic — and scores of businesses in which he owns stock.

These hundreds of entities pose nearly endless conflicts. In a Trump presidency, every government contract not awarded to his companies could be litigated, environmental regulations that affect his businesses could be instantly repealed, and long-fought banking regulations could be dismantled at the drop of a hat. And that’s just from looking at his financial disclosure form; because Trump refuses to release his tax returns, scores of conflicts of interest remain unknown.

[PrideofJefferson]

1. Dumpster will always have his own interests at heart

To him it's like a hostile takeover of America. He'll reap any profits he can for himself and his cronies and leave the rest of us to clean up the mess. Like Cheney on steroids.