**Official Trump Conflict of Interest Thread**

[RandomGuy]

http://www.wsj.com/graphics/donald-t...s-of-interest/


WSJ does a good job of showing the web.

[SnakeBoy]

Okaaay, you are pro-choice.

You also seem to be missing my point, that is on you, not me. Maybe I can make it more plain.

A fetus is a group of cells entirely dependent on the mothers body to sustain itself, and in that way are analogous to any other tissue.

LOL Snakeboy


"Your point is bad, because REASONS!, science denier!"

Seriously? That is what you are going with?

C'mon man, you can do better.

Hey your the one who tried to use "simple biology" to justify your position on abortion. As I already pointed out to the abortion issue is about at what point does a person deserve the most basic human right. I don't care what arbitrary point you personally have decided upon. If you think it is vagina juice that coats a person with human rights then fine, just don't pretend science has anything to do with it.

In fact, the it is only the strictest pro lifers who can claim science as a basis for their belief since it is a biological fact that a human life begins at conception.

[RandomGuy]

Donald Trump's extensive, international business holdings mean he will have to make decisions as leader of the US that also affect his businesses. Here's a look at some of his potential conflicts of interest.
The Trump Organization is an umbrella company for Donald Trump's hundreds of investments in real estate, brands and other businesses.
As head of the executive branch and a business owner, he would have the ability to influence both US policy and government agencies to benefit his bottom line.
Presidents are not subject to the same conflict of interest rules as other government employees, and previous commanders-in-chief have placed their investments into a blind trust to prevent any question of corruption.
Mr Trump has said his adult sons will run the Trump Organization during his presidency, but they are also members of his transition team and have sat in on meetings with foreign leaders.
The president-elect has also said he will "be leaving my great business in total," but has not specified what this means in practice nor announced any major changes.
Ethics experts have urged Trump to liquidate his business holdings so that he can avoid any appearance of a conflict.
Read more here about how the Trump Organization's business works and what it means for the presidency.
Below is a list of known conflicts of interest for Mr Trump, both foreign and domestic. Because his business is private, the full extent of his holdings - and the potential for conflicts - is not known.
Many of these conflicts were reported before Mr Trump won the election, but have become more pressing as his transition team begins to make decisions about his presidency.

The list is getting longer.

So let's make sure they are do ented here.

[RandomGuy]

#1 from BBC website http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38069298

American conflicts of interest
40 Wall Street

The Trump Organization owns the right to lease the space in this office building in Manhattan - and makes money from the rent paid to the building.
According to Bloomberg News, there are five ongoing federal investigations into current or former tenants of 40 Wall Street, mostly for securities fraud.
Those investigations are headed up by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Mr Trump will appoint a new SEC chair once he takes office.

[RandomGuy]

#2

Dakota Access Pipeline
Native Americans march to the site of a sacred burial ground that was disturbed by bulldozers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), near the encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's protest of the oil pipeline slated to cross the nearby Missouri River, September 4, 2016 near Cannon Ball, North Dakota
Sioux tribes and allies have been protesting for months to prevent the Dakota Access pipeline from being built under water supplies near the Standing Rock reservation.
Trump had a partial investment - somewhere between $500,000 and $1m - in the parent company of the firm building Dakota Access pipeline, Energy Transfers Partners.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks says Mr Trump has sold his stock in Energy Transfer Partners. But another one of Trump's stock holdings, Phillips 66, owns a 25% share in the project.
It's unclear if the president-elect has also sold his stock in Phillips 66, as his last financial disclosure was in May.
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the interior department have delayed a decision on the future of the pipeline until they can consult further with other local communities.
Mr Trump's political appointee to head the interior department could ultimately be responsible for the decision.

[RandomGuy]

#3

Deutsche Bank
One of Trump's major lenders on his real estate projects is Deutsche Bank.
The bank is currently in negotiations with the US justice department to settle a case involving misleading buyers when it sold mortgage bonds backed by risky loans.
If Deutsche Bank does not settle by inauguration day, Mr Trump's administration would be in charge of the negotiations.

[boutons_deux]

The Corruption Will Be UnPresidented.

[RandomGuy]

#4

The FCC
The president-elect will have another job le beyond "commander-in-chief": executive producer. He will continue to have a "big stake" in The Celebrity Apprentice, which airs on NBC, linking Mr Trump's business interests with the network.
NBC and its parent company, Comcast, is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Mr Trump will need to appoint two commissioners to the agency.

[RandomGuy]

#5 This is probably the one that will get him impeached fastest.

General Service Administration
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (C) and his family (L-R) son Donald Trump Jr, son Eric Trump, wife Melania Trump and daughters Tiffany Trump and Ivanka Trump prepare to cut the ribbon at the new Trump International Hotel October 26, 2016 in Washington, DCImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Donald Trump (C) and his family prepare to cut the ribbon at the new Trump International Hotel in October 2016
The Trump Organization leases the Old Post Office Building from US government's General Services Administration (GSA) for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC.Trump as president is both "landlord and tenant" of this building, says Steven Schooner, who along with Daniel Gordon, has called on Trump to end the lease.
The 60-year lease will likely involve renegotiations - and the person responsible for setting the rent prices would ultimately report to the head of the GSA, a Trump appointee.In addition, the lease bars any federal employee, including elected officials, from benefitting from contracts with the government.
Meanwhile. the hotel has already been pitched to foreign diplomats as a place to stay while in Washington, raising concerns that foreign governments could see booking expensive rooms at the Trump International as a way to gain favour with the Trump administration.

[RandomGuy]

#5 This is where he ****s over the little people the most, to line his pockets.

National Labor Relations Board
On 3 November, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that Trump International Hotel Las Vegas - which Trump co-owns - broke the law by refusing to negotiate with a hotel workers' union.
The hotel appealed the case to a higher court. But eight other labour disputes involving the Las Vegas hotel are currently before the board.
Trump will appoint two empty seats on the five-person board after he becomes president, and the NLRB is facing an unprecedented situation on how to rule on disputes that will affect the president's business.

[RandomGuy]

#6

Secret Service
Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump departs in his plane after rallying with supporters in a cargo hangar at Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. November 6, 2016Image copyrightREUTERS
During the campaign, Trump's airplane company, TAG Air, billed the Secret Service for flying on Trump's Boeing 757 while protecting the candidate. It is standard for Secret Service to pay their own way on private aircraft, and during the campaign, this was tracked by the Federal Election Commission through campaign finance reports.
While Mr Trump will fly on Air Force One and other US aircraft as president, if Trump or Pence family members are assigned protective detail and decide to fly on Trump planes, the Secret Service would need to reimburse TAG Air - and ultimately Mr Trump - for the flights.
In addition, Secret Service will reportedly pay the Trump Organization for the space they use in Trump Tower while protecting Melania and Barron Trump as they stay in New York for part of this year.
Such amounts are part of Secret Service's normal budget and are unlikely to be disclosed.

[RandomGuy]

#7 This could get him impeached as well, for insider trading, if he is dumb enough to tell anyone what he is going to tweet about ahead of time...

Stocks
Jason Miller, the transition team's spokesman, has said the president-elect sold all his stocks in June, a month after the required financial disclosure, but the campaign has furnished no proof.
Since his election, Mr Trump has singled out specific companies for criticism on Twitter, causing price swings on the stock market. If Mr Trump still owns these stocks, he could make money off of selling and buying before and after such tweets.

[RandomGuy]

#8 More impeachment material.

Foreign holdings
According to Trump's financial disclosure, he has investments in or owns companies in at least 20 countries. Unlike his domestic business, Mr Trump could run afoul of a clause in the US cons ution by continuing to profit from these deals.
The emoluments clause specifically prevents anyone who holds a US "office of trust or profit" from accepting gifts, payments or any benefit from a foreign nation.
Even routine business benefits like tax breaks would likely violate the emoluments clause once Mr Trump becomes president.
One former White House ethics lawyer has argued Mr Trump would be violation of the cons ution "on day one", if he keeps his business.
In addition to emoluments, Mr Trump's foreign policy decisions could be called into question in any country in which the Trump Organization does business, especially when his policies would benefit the firm's holdings overseas.Here are some of Mr Trump's larger business deals that intersect with US foreign policy.

[RandomGuy]

#9

Argentina
An Argentine broadcaster reported that Mr Trump allegedly asked President Mauricio Macri for his support to build an office tower in Buenos Aires while on call during Mr Trump's transition period.
Mr Macri's office and the Trump campaign have denied the report.
However, several days later, the Buenos Aires firm building the tower announced construction of the project was going ahead after years of delays.

[RandomGuy]

#10

Brazil
A waterfront property in Rio de Janeiro, branded with the Trump name through a licensing deal, is the subject of a federal inquiry after two small Brazilian pension funds invested heavily in the unfinished project, with allegations of bribery.
Update: The Trump Organization has reportedly cancelled their licensing deal with the developers in Rio. Trump lawyer Alan Garten told the AP in December this and a few other cancellations were "normal housekeeping" and not part of a strategy to reduce potential conflicts of interests.

[boutons_deux]

If articles are ever written in the House (by Dems of course), the Repug House wont pass them

GAMEOVER

[boutons_deux]

"Do Your Job!" Hundreds of People Shout Down Jason Chaffetz Over Lack of Trump Probe



http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...rump-conflicts

[RandomGuy]

http://www.economist.com/news/china/...s-fervent-wish

Trump sells out a key asia ally, to get favors from the Chinese government.

D'oh.

[RandomGuy]

The most recent entries appear at the top:

That Meeting at Mar-a-Lago
That Resort in the Dominican Republic
That Defense Department Trump Tower Rental
That Red Cross Ball
That D.C. Labor Dispute
That Estate in Palm Beach
Those Expansion Plans
That Hotel in Vancouver
That Reality-Television Show
That Pipeline
Those HUD Grants
That Golf Course in Aberdeen
That Other Billionaire New York Real-Estate Developer
Those Indonesian Politicians
That Emirati Businessman
That Virginia Vineyard
That Las Vegas Labor Dispute
That Kuwaiti Event
Those Certificates of Dives ure
That Carrier Deal
That Blind-Trust Issue
Those Fannie and Freddie Investments
That Phone Call With Taiwan
That Deutsche Bank Debt
That Secret Service Detail
That Property in Georgia (the Country)
That Phone Call With Erdogan
That Hotel in Washington, D.C.
That Argentinian Office Building
Those Companies in Saudi Arabia
That British Wind Farm
Those Indian Business Partners
That Envoy From the Philippines


The list keeps getting longer.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...erests/508382/

[spurraider21]

If articles are ever written in the House (by Dems of course), the Repug House wont pass them

GAMEOVER

Trump president not clinton

[RandomGuy]

Trump president not clinton

That Resort in the Dominican Republic
That Chinese Trademark
That Meeting at Mar-a-Lago
That Defense Department Trump Tower Rental
That Red Cross Ball
That D.C. Labor Dispute
That Estate in Palm Beach
Those Expansion Plans
That Hotel in Vancouver
That Reality-Television Show
That Pipeline
Those HUD Grants
That Golf Course in Aberdeen
That Other Billionaire New York Real-Estate Developer
Those Indonesian Politicians
That Emirati Businessman
That Virginia Vineyard
That Las Vegas Labor Dispute
That Kuwaiti Event
Those Certificates of Dives ure
That Carrier Deal
That Blind-Trust Issue
Those Fannie and Freddie Investments
That Phone Call With Taiwan
That Deutsche Bank Debt
That Secret Service Detail
That Property in Georgia (the Country)
That Phone Call With Erdogan
That Hotel in Washington, D.C.
That Argentinian Office Building
Those Companies in Saudi Arabia
That British Wind Farm
Those Indian Business Partners
That Envoy From the Philippines

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...erests/508382/

[RandomGuy]

That Resort in the Dominican Republic


The Trump Organization’s January 11 pledge that it would no longer be pursuing new deals in foreign countries is looking increasingly toothless. Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, The Guardian reported that the president’s business would be moving forward with a planned expansion of its golf course in Aberdeen. Now, the Associated Press has reported that the company is working on a licensing deal in the Dominican Republic.

As was true with the Aberdeen plans, the Trump Organization has provided a narrow justification under which it argues that the news does not violate its promise. Technically, it argues, the deal is not new: The Trump Organization has had a contract with Ricardo and Fernando Hazoury, the brothers who own the Cap Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic, since 2007. But the financial crisis and disagreements between the Trump family and the Hazoury brothers, which climaxed with Eric Trump accusing the pair of “textbook fraud” in a 2012 lawsuit, had stalled the arrangement for nearly a decade, and the two parties haven’t written a new contract since the 2007 deal was struck. Even other real-estate developers have said that the resumption of the relationship between the Trumps and Hazourys caught them by surprise. For their part, the Hazourys have said that the relationship with the Trumps “remains incredibly strong, especially with Eric, who has led this project since its conception.”


The development in the Dominican Republic epitomizes the way the Trump Organization seems intent to violate the spirit of their “no new foreign deals” pledge, and arguably even the letter. Asked about the Organization’s justification for the deal, Richard Painter, who served as the ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, noted that the company “can take the tiniest little past involvement in something and then extend it into an enormous new deal” and hasn’t presented a meaningful way “to distinguish between new business and old business.” Already, the Trump Organization has provided excuses for moving forward with two projects based on an interpretation of its own pledge that seems predicated on the idea that a deal can only be described as “new” if there had never been any relationship whatsoever between the Trump family and the property in question. As the company finds more explanations to broaden what initially seemed to be a clear-cut policy to reduce conflicts of interest—arguably, the only step in Trump’s plan that actually would have helped him do so—the pledge will likely become increasingly meaningless.

The Cap Cana story is yet another conflict of interest that only became public because of reporting from local media—and because of the nonchalance with which the Trump family handles the relationship between their business and the presidency. The first outlet to report on Eric’s trip was the Dominican newspaper Diario Libre, shortly after Cap Cana posted a picture of the Hazourys with Eric on its website. This follows stories like the president’s phone call with the president of Argentina and his company’s plans to expand into Taiwan, both of which were similarly broken by local newspapers before getting picked up by American press outlets. Further, like the president’s post-election meeting with business partners from India and Eric’s trip to Uruguay, the Trump family’s propensity for photo ops played a role: Even amid intensifying scrutiny of the Trump Organization’s actions, Eric seems unworried about having not only taken the trip but also taken pictures with his business partners.


The president’s putative pick for his ambassador to the Dominican Republic only adds to the perception that Trump will intermingle business and politics in the country. Trump has picked Robin Bernstein, a campaign donor, business partner, and founding member of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, to be his administration’s representative in the country. Bernstein and her husband Richard have been in business with the president and his company for decades through The Americas Group, a consulting and marketing firm focused on construction projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. Choosing personal friends and supporters to be ambassadors is relatively common, especially in countries with which the United States has relatively uncomplicated relations. However, Trump’s decision to appoint somebody with whom he has long maintained a financial relationship—his second such appointment, after having named fellow billionaire real-estate developer and business partner Steven Roth to head his infrastructure program—suggests a continued willingness to blur the lines between his endeavors as a businessman and his duties as president, all while contributing to the perception that the president is willing to reward those who have done business with him in the past.

[RandomGuy]

That Chinese Trademark

On February 15, President Trump scored a long-sought-after victory when a Chinese court ruled in his favor in a trademark dispute. In the case, which dragged on for more than a decade, the Trump Organization won sole rights to use the president’s name on products in the country, which would help prevent a bevy of unrelated entrepreneurs from applying it to a wide range of products, from toilets to clothing to condoms to explosives.

RELATED STORY


The Story Behind Trump's Chinese Trademark

Almost immediately, Trump’s critics pointed out that the ruling poses a clear conflict of interest. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California called the trademark decision “deeply troubling,” adding, “If this isn’t a violation of the Emoluments Clause, I don’t know what is.” Some, including Feinstein, went further in their assertions: Only days before, Trump had apparently reversed one of his stances toward China by offering a full-throated endorsement of the “One China Policy” (under which countries officially recognize the mainland Chinese government but not Taiwan), leading to the suggestion that the court’s decision was part of a quid-pro-quo deal between the two governments.


Additional context, though, complicates this picture. The case, it turns out, was largely resolved in November 2016, before there was any indication that the president would waffle on the One China Policy by calling the president of Taiwan, and was the culmination of more than a decade of litigation that largely predates Trump’s involvement in politics. Conflicts of this kind over trademarks are fairly common in China, and, though resolving such cases often costs companies significant time and money, the Trump Organization’s victory is one of several that have gone in favor of American corporations in recent years. None of this rules out the possibility of a quid-pro-quo arrangement, but in sum it suggests that there is more to the case than what Feinstein alleges.

Whether or not the Chinese government tried to curry favor with the president by seeing to it that the court ruled in his favor, Trump’s newly awarded trademark poses a conflict of interest that could impact his future interactions with China. On top of the questions around his adherence, or lack thereof, to the One China Policy, Trump has taken a number of controversial stands when it comes to China, from accusing the country of currency manipulation to threatening to take hard-line trade positions that experts worry could lead to a trade war. Over all of these questions will loom the president’s knowledge that, with its trademark now secured, his company has an ongoing profitable relationship with the Chinese government—which, even if Trump does not proactively consider it in approaching the negotiating table, could provide his Chinese counterparts with leverage to influence the president’s decisions.

[RandomGuy]

That Meeting at Mar-a-Lago

Of his first three weekends in office, President Donald Trump spent two of them away from Washington, D.C., at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. On his first trip to the resort, which he has dubbed his “Winter White House,” Trump spent time on the golf course, attended a ball held by the Red Cross—a federally chartered organization over which he will likely be tasked to wield authority while in office—and held a Super Bowl party at which he hobnobbed with wealthy patrons.

RELATED STORY


Trump's Performative Presidency

His third weekend in office, Trump brought a guest of honor along with him: the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe. After first meeting with Abe at the real White House, Trump took his Japanese counterpart to Florida for a weekend on the links. The biggest controversy out of the weekend was over the president’s handling of a situation that developed on Saturday, February 11: As news of a North Korean missile test broke during dinner, Trump and Abe discussed the situation in public, using light from phones of gathered onlookers to read briefing do ents, an incredibly lax approach to information security, particularly ironic given that Trump won in part because of his opponent’s own lapses in information security.

The situation perfectly encapsulates the way the president’s business interests are coming up against those of the country. Already, the Trump Organization’s decision to double Mar-a-Lago’s initiation fees led to accusations of profiteering, premised on the notion that people would be willing to pony up in the hopes of earning an audience with the commander-in-chief.


The events of Saturday, February 11 took the problem to a whole new level. By discussing the recently obtained intelligence with Abe without leaving the table, the president committed a breach of international-security protocol in a very public setting. Even had the meeting been taking place in the White House, Trump’s lackadaisical approach to information security would have been cause for concern; for self-evident reasons, briefings on urgent security situations do not typically happen in somewhat open settings around civilians. But on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, the situation becomes much more dangerous, because the patio is not a secure setting, and the administration does not appear to have taken measures to make it one. This is a perfect example of a conflict of interest in practice: Trump has an incentive to host an event at Mar-a-Lago (personal financial gain) that runs directly counter to what would be best for the country’s security (hosting the event at the White House or an otherwise secure location). Not only that, part of the appeal of Mar-a-Lago is that guests will have a front-row ticket to see Trump at work. Previous presidents like Barack Obama, meanwhile, took a more conventional, and far more secure, approach, setting up a mobile security perimeter known as a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, to ensure that nobody in the area could look in on or overhear the president’s dealings.


According to the president’s Press Secretary Sean er, Mar-a-Lago does, in fact, have a SCIF on site that they used for the remainder of the Trump’s conversation about North Korea with Abe. That they apparently began their discussion at the dinner table before deploying the SCIF underscores the problem of the situation at Mar-a-Lago: Trump has a financial incentive to hold an open-air meeting like Saturday night’s to keep up the appearance that, by paying to be a member of his exclusive club, anyone can have access to the most powerful man in the world.

Who could have been present? The club’s membership list is private, meaning that the American public has no way of knowing who was around to overhear the conversation. (Two Democratic senators, Tom Udall and Sheldon Whitehouse, have introduced a bill to change this fact, but there is little evidence suggesting it has any hopes of passing through the Republican-held Congress.) Nor have the Trump Organization and White House been forthcoming as to how they intend to screen club members and employees for security clearance; though Udall and Whitehouse reached out to the administration to ask how Mar-a-Lago vets guests for security risks, but received no response. In such a public place, and without protective measures like a SCIF, there may not be anything to stop an agent of a foreign government or other malicious actor from paying the $200,000 initiation fee to stay at the club, effectively paying to be near to the president when he receives sensitive information. Unless Trump takes significant steps either to erect barriers between himself and the guests at Mar-a-Lago—which he certainly didn’t do this time, and which could reduce his ability to profit from the property—there is a real possibility that he will continue to compromise his country’s interests when he travels to his resort in Palm Beach.


One patron of the club, Richard DeAgazio, demonstrated just how much of a breakdown the situation represents. DeAgazio, who, according to a photo he posted on Facebook, joined the club in December after Trump’s election, snapped several pictures of the president and prime minister’s conversation, which helped corroborate a CNN report on the public nature of the ad-hoc meeting and details such as the use of cellphone flashlights to illuminate do ents; he also took pictures with Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon and the president’s “body man,” whose job is in part to carry the “nuclear football” containing missile-launch codes (and who was initially identified by name in the photo’s caption). As if to reinforce impression that Mar-a-Lago members gain unprecedented access to the the president, even in the middle of a crisis situation, another patron was able to film Trump giving a toast at a wedding shortly after his press conference with Abe.

There is no reason to believe that DeAgazio had any intention of compromising international security with his pictures; he appears to simply be a wealthy Trump supporter who was excited at the chance to see his commander-in-chief in action and wanted photographs with which to remember the occasion. (He has since apparently either deleted his Facebook profile or increased his privacy settings so that it is no longer publicly accessible.) Nevertheless, he demonstrated just how Trump’s continued commingling of his business interests and his presidency places not just Americans but the entire global community in jeopardy.


In a way, the sheer enormity of the situation at Mar-a-Lago briefly crowded out the fact that merely bringing Abe to Mar-a-Lago demonstrates Trump’s conflicts of interest neatly. Though diplomatic meetings outside the White House are not unprecedented, Trump’s trip with Abe is likely the first instance of the president actually making money from such a meeting. Though Trump said that he was footing Abe’s bill, with both increased Secret Service presence and Abe’s retinue on hand, there’s a distinct possibility that, at some point in the weekend, somebody from the U.S. or Japanese government made a payment that ended up in Trump’s pocket. On top of that, the visit generated an inordinate amount of free publicity for Mar-a-Lago, which Trump repeatedly mentioned (and posted photos of) on his social media accounts and was continually noted in coverage of the weekend.

[spurraider21]

Trump president not clinton