Posted on 01/19/2017 10:01:45 AM PST by DCBryan1
When he takes the oath of office Friday, President-elect Donald Trump will carry with him a massive web of potential conflicts of interest not seen in modern American history.
The next president's ethical quandary is the result of his refusal to divest himself of a sprawling network of more than 500 properties that he has amassed in more than three decades as a celebrity entrepreneur.
At a long-awaited news conference last week, Trump dismissed the potential conflicts after his attorney laid out the broad outlines of a plan to separate himself from the day-to-day operations of his businesses.
The plan includes the establishment of a trust to be run by his two sons and a Trump Organization executive. The company will also hire an ethics advisor to clear any new domestic deals, and Trump pledged to donate any hotel profits generated from foreign governments to avoid the appearance of gifts.
But the plan doesn't go nearly far enough to head off major ethical conflicts, Walter Shaub Jr., director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, said last week.
The new structure, he said, is "meaningless."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Har, har. Not personally but his father was big time and all of it was in a foundation.
Rockefeller indeed was VP and so is Pence, he just happens have the same obligation as the President. The point was why all the fuss when they don't fuss over their own. Johnson was not all that poor either and his wife had some TV stations that didn't stir up any protest either.
No he did not but he meets the same requirements as the President. Get a grip.
I guess they never heard of Nelson Rockefeller.
So we're really going to have to keep an eye on his Department of Golf appointments.
Rockefeller's wealth, which he estimated at $62.6-million, accounted for most of the controversy aroused during the confirmation hearings. Some members of Congress questioned whether Rockefeller might seek to influence federal actions and legislation through gifts and loans to officials.
It was disclosed during the hearings that while he was governor of New York Rockefeller had given or loaned large amounts of money to officials and former aides, including Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.)
Rockefeller pledged to limit his generosity as vice president. He also offered to place his holdings in a blind trust while in office. But congressional leaders said this would serve no purpose and no such condition was imposed.
Largely as a result of the wealth issue, Rockefeller's confirmation took almost four months. He had been nominated Aug. 20. Another factor in the delay was the intervention of the biennial congressional election. Rockefeller supporters charged that the Democratic leaders of Congress delayed confirmation so that Rockefeller could not help Republican candidates in the campaign.
By comparison, Gerald R. Ford's confirmation as vice president a year earlier had taken less than two monthsfrom nomination Oct. 12, 1973, to swearing in Dec. 6. . .
We had no illusions that we could reverse the outcome of the House vote on Rockefeller, said an aide to Rep. Jerome R. Waldie (D Calif.), one of the leaders of Rockefeller's opposition. But we wanted to build a historical record to put Rockefeller and others on notice that certain activities are objected to by a substantial segment of Congress.. . .
Responding to questions concerning potential conflicts of interest between official decisions and family investments, Rockefeller emphasized that the family did not control any company. There would be no conflict, he said. My sole purpose is to serve my country .I would not be influenced by so-called interests.
One cannot explode a myth that is not a myth, stated Byrd, as the second day of hearings opened Sept. 24. It's not a myth .The name of Rockefeller is known to every person in America and associated with it is the meaning of tremendous wealth .To say that it's a myth does not dissipate the fact.
I wonder if you yourself may be conscious of the power that the two [great political power and extensive economic influence] when combined really add up to .I wonder if you can separate the interest of big business and the national interest when they diverge, speculated Byrd.
After considerable debate between the two concerning the existence of the Rockefellers' economic influence, Rockefeller finally responded, yes sirno problem! to Byrd's central question. . .
=confirmation hearings
Thanks for that info———I had forgotten much of it
Great reminder of him.
I guess they want us to believe that every person to ever run for president was broke. Unlike the Clintons, who were “dead broke” when they left. Ha!
I’ll wait for the next list of candidates AND their spouses to see their holdings.
Nancy Pelosi, owns hotels, vineyards, real estate in San Diego. She gets Union donations but yet, hires non union workers. She has voted on legislation that favored her husband’s real estate holdings.
Feinsteins’ husband owned a real estate company that got the contract to sell USPS offices, made 1 million off of it.
Then, her husband who is part owner of construction company who got the contract for high speed rail worth 1 million dollars.
What about political decisions that helped family and friends? No bias there. /s
Guess someone at CNBC didn’t watch his press conference where is lawyer spelled out what Trump was doing to remove the conflict of interest.
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