How Trump Plans On Dealing With Conflict Of Interests But Not Really

UPDATE: 

Trump Attorney Is Partner In Firm Named ‘Russia Law Firm Of The Year’ 

Here is another one of Donald Trump's Dog And Pony Shows that he is so famous for
 

Trump will shift his assets into a trust managed by his sons and give up management of his private company….

The announcement included a pledge from a Trump lawyer that the company would make “no new foreign deals whatsoever” during Trump’s presidency, and that any new domestic deals would undergo vigorous review, including approval by an independent ethics adviser.

But Trump’s commitment will not resolve what federal officials and ethics advisors say is his most key conflict: His continuing ownership of his business, the Trump Organization. That will ensure Trump will still have a vested financial interest in a global private company when he takes office next week.

Sheri Dillon, a tax advisor at Morgan Lewis, said Trump has sought to completely isolate himself from the business and “will only know of a deal if he sees it in the paper or on TV.” But he will not sell the business or his stake, adding, “President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built.”

Take two key provisions here, the idea for a new ethics adviser that would sign off on new deals, and the pledge to “isolate” himself from the business to the degree that he won’t know about any new deals unless he reads about them in the media. The problem is obvious: Even if Trump takes these steps, and even if he does transfer his holdings into a trust managed by his sons, he still knows what his business holdings are, regardless of whether he knows about any “new” deals or whether any such new deals pass muster with his ethics adviser.

That means that much of the potential for conflicts remains in place: Trump will be making regulatory decisions impacting businesses (such as banks) that are entangled with his own. He will be setting American policy in countries where he retains holdings. Trump’s businesses could even directly benefit from Trump policies. Only full divestment would have sufficed to ward off potential conflicts in these areas.

“The Trump plan falls short in every respect,” Norm Eisen, the former ethics watchdog in the Obama administration, emailed me. “Trump did not make a clean break with his business ownership interests as his predecessors for four decades have done.”

“Trump’s ill-advised course will precipitate scandal and corruption,” Eisen added.

Making things even worse, nor did Trump make any vows of increased transparency into his holdings. Trump once again rebuffed calls to release his tax returns, which might have helped create such transparency, and didn’t announce any additional steps to provide it in any other way. This means another core problem remains: Because we aren’t privy to the full scope and range of those holdings, we simply cannot know whether such conflicts — or corruption — are taking place in any given situation.

“As long as president-elect Trump maintains ownership of his businesses, he will know when tax or regulatory or policy changes benefit his bottom line,” Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, told me today. “He will also know when policy decisions will benefit him by benefiting other companies whose interests are tied up with his, or benefiting foreign countries whose interests affect his businesses.”

“Even worse, because we don’t know the scope of his interests, we won’t even know it when there’s such a situation where such a conflict is possible or happening,” Bookbinder added.

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