Thursday, February 16, 2017

Washington Post: Trump Confidants Serving as Presidential Advisers Could Face Tangle of Potential Conflicts

By John Wagner and Ylan Q. Mui:

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn will have the ear of President-elect Donald Trump as an adviser focused on cutting government regulations. But Icahn also stands to benefit if his advice is taken: It could make the energy companies and others in which he has a stake more profitable.

Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who’s a major figure in her father’s business, has been present at transition meetings and is expected to continue to counsel him at the White House. So, too, is her husband, Jared Kushner, who has a web of business interests of his own that could be affected by Trump administration policy.

And another Trump intimate — his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski — is making no secret of his desire to profit on his continuing closeness to Trump, setting up a new lobbying firm with an office just a block from the White House.

With confirmation hearings set to start for Trump’s Cabinet, ethics experts are voicing alarm about several other confidants of the president-elect — dubbed the “shadow Cabinet” by one — who might not be subject to such scrutiny and could face a tangle of potential conflicts between their personal interests and those of the public.

The Full Story (January 8, 2017)

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