Wednesday, 7 March 2018

Could Trump get a White House job if he weren’t president? Spoiler: Nope.

As veterans of the Office of the White House Counsel under presidents of both parties, we have worked with hundreds of officials seeking ethics and security clearances in order to work in the federal government. Fourteen months into this presidency, it is increasingly obvious that there is a man in the White House now who would not be able to get such clearances if he were not the president.

Every day brings a new reason why President Trump cannot meet the standards expected of every single person who works for him (except for the vice president). Take recent reports about the payment Trump attorney Michael Cohen "facilitated" for porn actress Stormy Daniels to help Trump in the waning days of the 2016 campaign. Despite Cohen's carefully worded denials that he was not reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign, this week brought the news that he complained to friends that Trump had been slow to reimburse him, and that Trump was supposed to sign the settlement agreement under an assumed name.

More: Robert Mueller terrifies President Trump. Of course he wants him gone.

More: Donald Trump ethics waivers flood the swamp with conflicts of interest

Those revelations would halt any normal security or ethics clearance in its tracks. They suggest that the payment may in fact have been a loan from Trump's attorney, and that Trump is the real beneficiary of the agreement and an associated LLC. Federal law requires Trump to report his liabilities and assets — yet no Stormy-related information appeared on his signed financial disclosure filings.



Source: usatoday

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