Washington, D.C. — On Thurs., Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the top Ranking Democratic Members of 21 House Committees — Rep. Adam Smith, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Armed Services (D-WA) — sent a letter urging House Speaker Paul Ryan to join them in demanding documents about President-Elect Donald Trump’s worldwide business dealings:
“It is now up to Congress to exercise our Constitutional duty to act as an independent check on the Executive Branch by demanding all documents necessary to evaluate all of President-Elect Trump’s global financial entanglements for conflicts of interest and constitutional violations—including in particular those involving Russian investors, business interests, and development partners.”
The letter followed Trump’s press conference yesterday, during which he announced his plan to defy warnings from Republican and Democratic ethics experts by refusing to do what every previous president has done for decades—divest himself of his corporate ownership interests, liquidate his business assets, and place them in a truly blind trust operated by an independent entity.
“We do not understand why President-Elect Trump has so vigorously defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and alleged sex offender Julian Assange while at the same time disparaging U.S. intelligence officials who warn that Russia attacked our democracy prior to the 2016 presidential election—and is likely to do so again in the future,” the Ranking Members wrote. “We also do not understand why President-Elect Trump has been so secretive about his business dealings with Russian interests.”
Although Trump has denied having any business projects in Russia, he has not addressed investments and partnerships with Russians in projects around the world. Donald Trump Jr.—who will now run his father’s companies—has stated: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
In addition, multiple news outlets have reported that Trump “sought and received funding from Russian investors for his business ventures, especially after most American banks stopped lending to him following his multiple bankruptcies.”
The Ranking Members’ letter raises serious concerns about the lack of information about Trump’s global business interests and financing.
For example, reports indicate that the Trump Soho project in Manhattan was “developed with the undisclosed involvement of convicted felons and financing from questionable sources in Russia and Kazakhstan” and that the project’s former finance director alleged that they “occasionally received unexplained infusions of cash from accounts in Kazakhstan and Russia.”
On December 14, 2016, top Republican and Democratic ethics experts appearing at a congressional forum made clear that if Trump refused to follow the same course as his predecessors, the responsibility would rest on Congress to obtain documents about his unprecedented global business entanglements in order to prevent unconstitutional emoluments.
Yesterday, the head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter Shaub, warned that Trump’s plan is “wholly inadequate.”
