Five Democratic senators plan to introduce a bill in January requiring President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to release information on, and divest from, any conflicts of interest.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ben Cardin, Chris Coons, Dick Durbin and Jeff Merkley are all co-sponsors on the legislation that would require Trump and Pence to tell the American people about any financial conflicts of interest, and abandon those interests while in office.
“The American people deserve to know that the President of the United States is working to do what’s best for the country — not using his office to do what’s best for himself and his businesses,” Warren said in a statement.
“The only way for President-elect Trump to truly eliminate conflicts-of-interest is to divest his financial interests and place them in a blind trust. This has been the standard for previous presidents, and our bill makes clear the continuing expectation that President-elect Trump do the same,” she said.
According to a fact sheet about the bill, Trump will violate the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause when he comes into office. That clause states federal officeholders, including the president cannot “accept any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.”
The Democratic senators argue any state-owned companies investing in Trump’s businesses are akin to Trump receiving a gift from a foreign state.
While the president and vice president are exempt from many federal financial statutes, they usually follow them voluntarily. Warren and the other Democratic senators want to remove that tradition and make it a lawfully-required part of taking the highest offices.
The bill would require the president, vice president, their spouses and their minor or dependent children to divest all of their potential financial conflicts of interest. They would be required to sell all of these assets and place the proceeds in a blind trust managed by an independent trustee, who would be in charge of ensuring there are no financial conflicts of interest.
The bill would also make Congress consider it an impeachable offense, either a high crime or a misdemeanor, when the bill is violated. In addition, it would keep presidential appointees from dealing with matters that concern the financial interests of the president or his family.
“The American people do not want the president encumbered by conflicts of interest that put him in violation of the Constitution or U.S. law,” Cardin said in a statement. “He shouldn’t want such conflicts either. Through legislation, resolutions, and advocacy we will continue to uphold the Constitution and current law and require the President-elect to take serious steps to give the American people the transparency they deserve.”
Republican control of Congress will make it impossible to pass the bill into law next year. But Democrats say the legislation is necessary because Trump has refused to explicitly say he would divest himself from his company in the wake of the election.
Trump was scheduled to speak on Thursday about how he would avoid conflicts of interest in office, but postponed it. While his advisers have stated the matter is complicated and required more time to figure out, Trump himself said “it isn’t” complicated and the media is exaggerating the situation.
Trump himself has pointed out the president is exempt from many financial disclosure laws when questioned about how he will avoid conflicts of interest.
Coons said Trump refusing to release his tax returns during the election, the first president in modern history to not do so, showed his disinclination toward transparency. The delay in separating himself from his business during the transition means Congress must act, he said.
“His continued delay in taking such steps is deeply troubling and calls into question his commitment to two fundamental responsibilities: running an open, transparent White House and fully severing his business ties before taking office,” Coons said.
“That’s why Congress must act promptly to pass this legislation that will require the President to divest their financial interests and place the proceeds in a blind trust,” he said. “The presidency is a full-time job with only one client: the American people.”
