Us President Blind Trust Law

Every president in the modern era has voluntarily put their assets into a blind trust to prevent corruption including insider trading or the appearance of corruption.

Us president blind trust law.

He doesn t have a blind trust because his assets are primarily held in plain. Start a trade war. Before a trust may be a qualified blind trust for conflict of interest purposes the officer must receive prior approval of the trust instrument and the. Planning for the presidential transition of donald trump led by then vice president elect former governor mike pence of indiana began before donald trump won the united states presidential election on november 8 2016 and became the president elect trump was formally elected by the electoral college on december 19 2016.

The transition was formerly led by chris christie until he and a. By definition that s not a blind trust says scherb of common cause. Congress passed the amendment on 21 march 1947. The twenty second amendment to the united states constitution was an addition to the united states constitution that put a limit on how many times a person could be elected to be president a person is limited to being elected twice or once if they have already served more than two years as president.

Among the specific requirements and features of a qualified blind trust under federal law are the following. Before taking office most new presidents put their investments into a blind trust to avoid any conflict of interest. Imagine the following scenario for a president of the united states potus. President to continue to run a business while serving and in the past presidents have acted on an honor system of sorts or a blind trust.

Most presidents have had blind trusts since lyndon johnson in 1963. President obama is an exception to this practice. In their view one shared by many constitutional law and ethics experts the only way for trump to avoid receiving benefits from foreign governments or their agents given his far flung business interests would be to sell his business and create a blind trust for his assets as trump s predecessors have done upon assuming office. It is not technically illegal however for a u s.

Walter shaub jr the director of the us office of government ethics could not get president trump to divest his business interests to avoid such conflicts.