Trump’s Conflicts Of Interest Stun Legal, Ethics Experts

A bipartisan group of ethics advisors, including former chief White House ethics lawyers, signed a letter urging President-Elect Donald Trump to take steps to minimize “rampant, inescapable conflicts that will engulf your presidency if you maintain connections with the Trump Organization.”  They urged Trump to place his business assets and investments into a “genuine blind trust,” or to liquidate and buy treasury bills, or – at the very least – create “a clear firewall” to prevent his family members from having any involvement in policy decisions while he is in the White House. “[Y]our duties to the American people now must prevail over your personal ties to the trump Organization business,” the letter states. “Failure to follow this course of action will create conflicts of interest of unprecedented magnitude.” They warned that a failure to do so could open the presidency to lawsuits. “[E]very time any private party sees an opening for litigation against a Trump business entity, that person, perhaps in collusion with your political opponents, could file suit, perhaps even against you personally, embroiling the presidency in litigation.”