Donald Trumps swimming in the swamp: Dont expect Republicans to investigate his conflicts... [View all]

[DonViejo]

Donald Trump’s swimming in the swamp: Don’t expect Republicans to investigate his conflicts of interest

The press? Weak. Democrats? Ineffective. There's one group — the GOP — that can check Trump, and they likely won't

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

Kellyanne Conway says she’s confident Trump isn’t doing anything illegal with his businesses because he has lawyers and advisers. pic.twitter.com/Y9uDLiCJ2y
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— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) November 21, 2016

That tweet from Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway came in response to questions from the press about all of Trump’s ethical violations since the election. I wrote about a few of them on Monday, but since then it has been reported that Trump had asked about some permitting issues for a Trump project during a call with the president of Argentina (an issue Kurt Eichenwald raised in his investigation of Trump’s conflicts of interest back in September). The Argentine president’s office said the request didn’t happen, but the journalists who reported it are credible and it has since been revealed that Ivanka Trump was on the call, so it was a breach of normal protocol regardless.

Last night the New York Times reported that when Trump met with British politician Nigel Farage he asked for help in opposing wind farms that ruin the view from Trump’s Scottish golf courses. Andy Wigmore, an anti-Brexit media consultant who was present, said they are happy to oblige:

Mr. Wigmore headed communications for Leave.EU, one of the two groups that led the Brexit effort. He said in an email that he and Mr. Banks would be “campaigning against wind farms in England, Scotland and Wales.”

Trump will surely not forget the favor.

These are some of the recent ethical breaches we know about. They are unlikely to be the only ones. The Trump transition has already made it clear that they do not believe the norms that have always applied to previous presidents should apply to him.

more
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/22/donald-trumps-swimming-in-the-swamp-dont-expect-republicans-to-investigate-his-conflicts-of-interest/