Trump plan to hand business to sons 'fails to remove conflict of interest'
The head of the US Office of Government Ethics has launched a stinging criticism of president-elect Donald Trump's plans to leave his business interests in the hands of his sons Donald Junior and Eric.
Trump announced at his press conference at Trump Tower on Wednesday that the Trump Organization would be managed by his two sons and chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
The president-elect claimed that occupants of the Oval Office have no obligation to surrender business interests, as they are not affected by conflict of interest legislation, but said that he would step aside from his organisation to set an example.
However Walter Shaub, US Office of Government Ethics chief, said that Trump is breaking with precedent set by presidents over the last 40 years.
"Every president in modern times has taken the strong medicine of divestiture," Schaub said, referring to the practice of selling off corporate assets and allowing profits to be controlled by an independent trustee.
Shaub said that the fact that his sons will be running his old business operations will ensure that a conflict of interest remains.
"His sons are still running the businesses and, of course, he knows what he owns," he said at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington DC.
The ethics boss compared Trump's attempts to resolve his business conflicts with that of former ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson, who is currently undergoing a confirmation hearing in the Senate for the position of secretary of state.
"Mr Tillerson is making a clean break from Exxon," Schaub said. "He's also forfeiting bonus payments worth millions. As a result of OGE's work, he's now free of financial conflicts of interest. His ethics agreement serves as a sterling model for what we'd like to see with other nominees."