Fifty former national security experts and military officials are calling on Donald Trump to disclose details of his business dealings overseas, specifically who his business partners are and where his foreign investments are located.
The officials who signed the letter, which the Washington Examiner obtained Monday, include some who served in Republican administrations, such as former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
But the first signature on the letter is from a former U.S. Central commander, retired Marine Gen. John Allen.
“Donald Trump still has not revealed to the American public his international business relationships, even as it becomes increasingly clear that his overseas ties could well constitute significant conflicts of interest when it comes to charting U.S. foreign policy,” the letter begins.
“This is unprecedented for a candidate for the nation’s highest office.”
The letter follows a report published last week by Newsweek, which claimed that Trump’s business partners have included Kremlin-tied oligarchs and Russians with mafia links. It also claimed that Trump courted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and that other partners in Iran, India and South Korea have shady records.
“As such, we are calling on Mr. Trump to disclose, in full, the nature of his business relationships overseas — to include specifically who his business partners are and what and where are his foreign investments,” the letter said.
The national security officials include Michele Flournoy, who is widely considered a front-runner to be defense secretary should Hillary Clinton win in November.
They are sharply critical of Trump’s public statements about Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Trump’s policies “read like a Kremlin wish list,” including the possible lifting of sanctions against Russia, which the letter asserts would benefit both him and the Trump Organization.
“Our next commander in chief will inherit complex national security threats and complicated relationships with allies and adversaries alike,” the letter concludes. “But our policies must be motivated exclusively by what is in America’s best interest, not by the financial interests of our president. The onus is on Donald Trump to assure voters that this will be the case.”
The Trump campaign responded with a statement that targeted one of the signatories, Wendy Sherman, former undersecretary of state for Political Affairs in the Obama administration, and said the letter “epitomizes the rigged system in Washington that has continued to fail Americans over and over again.”
Jason Miller, a senior communications adviser to Trump, said Sherman’s inclusion in the group of officials undercut the credibility of the open letter.
“Sherman was appointed to the State Department by Hillary Clinton during her disastrous tenure and was the lead negotiator in opening up Iran — the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism — for business, ultimately funding terrorist activities and exporting violence around the world,” Miller said in an email to the Washington Examiner.
“She was also a key player in talks with North Korea and recommended acquiescing and appeasing the country’s dictator, which led to their development of nuclear weapons that currently threatens the stability of the region.”
David M. Drucker contributed to this report.
A call for transparency by mglennonexaminer on Scribd
