Updates | The Week of April 24, 2017
Derek Reinbold // 4/30/17 //
President Trump and his family have made money in his first 100 days and may view the presidency as a moneymaking venture (Vox).
President Trump doesn’t intend to release his tax returns, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (WaPo).
Watchdog group Democracy 21 asked Jared Kushner to recuse himself from several policy areas to avoid conflicts of interest with his businesses (WaPo).
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump are functionally immune from conflict of interest laws, argues Michael Maruca (Global Anticorruption Blog).
The State Department blog promoted Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, in a blog post earlier this month (CNN, NY Times, WaPo).
Jared Kushner’s business ties to one of the wealthiest families in Israel could potentially pose conflicts of interest, writes Jesse Drucker (NYT).
According to the Trump Administration, Ivanka Trump won’t be involved in raising money for an international fund to invest in women-owned businesses, contrary to earlier reports (WaPo).
Corey Lewandowski has not registered as a lobbyist even though his firm is offering to secure face time with President Trump for foreign politicians, irking ethics watchdogs and competing lobbyists (Politico).
President Trump doesn’t intend to release his tax returns, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (WaPo).
President Trump frequently consults with outside advisors who are not part of the White House staff, write Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush in the New York Times.
Former Trump campaign staffers are seeking out foreign lobbying contracts, notes Maya Gold at CREW.
The Treasury Department has declined to grant ExxonMobil a waiver from sanctions on Russia that prohibit the company from drilling for oil in the Black Sea. The proposal had raised concerns about conflicts of interest given Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s former role as CEO of ExxonMobil, and had been criticized by members of Congress from both parties (The Hill).
The Trump administration’s decision to stop disclosing White House visitor logs is a “giant leap in the wrong direction," writes Liz Hempowicz of the Project on Government Oversight.
The House Oversight Committee requested documents regarding the Trump Organization’s treatment of payments from foreign governments.
Congressional Democrats are raising concerns about deputy White House Counsel Stefan Passarino’s potential conflicts of interest (House Committee on Oversight and Governmental Reform).
Analysis of the disclosed records of contributions to President Trump’s inaugural committee continues.
- A hotel executive who withdrew from a fundraiser for President Trump’s campaign after protests donated over $1 million to the inaugural committee through four companies (The Intercept).
- The inaugural committee falsely claimed a $25,000 donation from Katherine Johnson, the former NASA mathematician featured in the recent movie “Hidden Figures” (The Intercept).