President-Elect Trump’s New White Paper on Conflicts of Interest
In January 2017, President-Elect Trump held a press conference and released a conflict of interest policy. In what feels like a lifetime ago, many people learned for the first time about the Emoluments Clause. The paper, produced by Morgan Lewis, offered this analysis:
From President Washington to Vice President Rockefeller to President-Elect Trump, many of this Nation’s leaders have been extraordinarily successful businessmen. Neither the Constitution nor federal law prohibits the President or Vice President from owning or operating businesses independent of their official duties, as a careful textual and historical analysis shows. Generally speaking, federal conflict-of-interest laws prohibit “officers” or “employees” of the United States from taking positions against the country’s interests, maintaining outside employment, receiving an outside salary for official duties, or taking official acts that affect their personal financial interests.2 But these laws have historically not applied to the President or Vice President. As then-Assistant Attorney General Antonin Scalia observed in an Office of Legal Counsel memorandum, the term “officer” typically includes neither the President nor Vice President.3 And since 1989, Congress has approved this tradition by expressly excluding the President and Vice President—along with Members of Congress and federal judges—from most conflict-of-interest laws.4 The Office of Government Ethics has recently re-affirmed that these conflict-of-interest laws do not apply to the President.5 Though Congress has long exempted the President and Vice President from federal conflict-of-interest laws, consistent with a tradition extending back to the Founding, many of these public servants have nevertheless sought to provide extra assurances that their undivided commitment is to the good of the country. For example, Presidents Johnson and Carter voluntarily stepped away from their broadcasting stations and peanut farms.6
1 Authored by: Sheri Dillon, Fred F. Fielding, Allyson N. Ho, Michael E. Kenneally, William F. Nelson, and Judd Stone.
2 See generally 18 U.S.C. §§ 203, 205, 207-09.
3 Memorandum from Antonin Scalia, Assi
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