White House to share financial information about top staff
The White House. AFP FILE PHOTO
WASHINGTON — The White House says it will share financial information about some top staff members late Friday.
President Donald Trump, a billionaire New York businessman, has hired some of the wealthiest people to ever serve in government. The financial assets of roughly 180 senior officials must be detailed in documents accessible to the public, and the Trump administration is continuing President Barack Obama’s tradition of providing a way to access those documents through the White House website.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer described the business people who have joined the administration as “very blessed and very successful,” and said the disclosure forms will show that they have set aside “a lot” to go into public service.
At the request of the White House, the Office of Government Ethics prepared a report to illustrate the complexity of the task of providing guidance on what the employees must sell off. A pie chart shows that OGE judged the majority of Trump White House nominees’ holdings to be “complex” or “extremely complex,” while the majority of the incoming Obama employees’ finances eight years ago were deemed “simple” or “moderate.” There were no numbers accompanying the pie charts.
The forthcoming documents provide the public with a snapshot of the employees’ finances as they entered the White House. What’s not being provided: the OGE agreements with those employees on what they must do to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Those documents will never be made public, White House lawyers said, although the public will eventually have access to “certificates of divestiture” issued to employees who are seeking capital gains tax deferrals for selling off certain assets.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka just this week agreed to serve as a government employee, triggering the need for her to file financial disclosures. Her documents are not ready, White House lawyers said. Her husband, Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump, also must file, as must economic adviser Gary Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive.
White House lawyers said “most” financial disclosures are being made public Friday, including Kushner’s.
Financial information for members of Trump’s Cabinet who needed Senate confirmation has, in most cases, been available for weeks through the Office of Government Ethics.
The president must also file periodic financial disclosures, but he is not required to make another disclosure until next year.
