Lobbying

Ivanka’s continued ties to Trump Organization create potential conflicts of interest: report

by Rebecca Savransky - 03/12/18 7:48 AM ET

Ivanka Trump’s continued ties to the Trump Organization could create potential conflicts of interest, McClatchy reported.

The first daughter — who serves as a White House adviser — will reportedly get more than $1 million a year from her family’s business.

The Trump Organization is still creating luxury resorts around the world, and its projects involve hiring state-owned companies to do construction and receiving payments from foreign officials.

{mosads}Critics, McClatchy said, are alleging Trump’s continued ties with the business amount to a violation of the emoluments clause.

“To the extent she’s still taking money and she’s still in the West Wing she has many of the same issues,” Stephen Spaulding, chief of strategy at Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that has looked into the president’s potential conflicts of interests, told the news outlet.

Trump’s business ties raise questions including whether foreign governments are able to get access to her through the business and whether deals being made regarding the business have any influence in the country’s foreign policy, according to McClatchy.

“If there are foreign financial obligations, commitments, reliances, that would be an item in a security clearance file,” said Paul Pillar, former deputy chief of the intelligence community’s counterterrorism center who served nearly three decades at the CIA.

Trump previously resigned from her vice president positions with the Trump Organization. But she will still receive $1.5 million a year — beginning in 2017 — from three companies affiliated with the Trump Organization, McClatchy reported.

A spokesman for the attorney hired by Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, told McClatchy that when Trump became a federal employee, she “transitioned from being an active investor and manager to being merely a passive investor.”

“She did this as a result of ethics advice she received, and has followed that advice,” Peter Mirijanian said.

President Trump has also faced accusations about conflicts of interests.

Tags conflicts of interest Donald Trump Emoluments Clause Ivanka Trump Ivanka Trump Jared Kushner The Trump Organization