Trump Unveils Ethics Policy to Avoid Conflicts of Interest

President-elect Donald J. Trump and his transition team unveiled an extensive plan to avoid conflicts of interest between his private business empire and his public office at a press conference at Trump Town in Manhattan on Wednesday morning.

The plan was presented by Sheri Dillon, a tax attorney at the Morgan, Lewis and Bockius firm. The goal of the plan, she said, was to ensure that Americans could “rest assured that all of [Trump’s] efforts are directed to pursuing the people’s business and not his own.” She said that Trump’s business empire was “not dissimilar to the fortunes of Nelson Rockefeller when he became Vice President — but at that time, no one was so concerned.”

While Trump would not divest himself entirely of his assets — a process, Dillon argued, that would itself involve conflicts of interest because of the people buying his assets or lending the money for their purchase — he had directed the attorneys at the firm to create a structure that would “completely isolate him from the management of the company.” She pointed out that Trump’s plan was voluntary, since laws governing conflicts of interest did not apply to the president or vice president, but he wanted to avoid even an appearance of impropriety.

The plan involves several major elements, the first of which is President-elect Trump’s decision to place all of his business assets, liquid and illiquid, in a trust by the time he is sworn in Jan. 20, and to hand control of the family business to his sons, Eric and Donald, Jr., along with Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg. Trump himself would resign from all his posts in the family business, and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, would also resign from, and have “no further involvement with,” the Trump Organization, due to her husband, Jared Kushner, taking an advisory role in the White House.

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