it from the government, and restored it. i think maybe it s time to move away from the notion that any time donald trump goes to any property of his that he is just engaging in branding. he is about to be president, but you have to concede that after tomorrow, once he takes the oath of office at noon tomorrow, january 20th, his ownership of that particular hotel becomes a massive potential legal problem for him because of the monuments clause. natural because that, but because of the fact that that lease specifically says very clearly that nobody owning that hotel can have any federal job whatsoever. he is the the president of the united states, and that particular property, not any other, but that particular property, by ethics lawyers from both the clinton, obama, and bush administrations, all concede that that is a massive problem and he should move away. as we saw in that press conference last week he brought a lawyer up to the podium to explain exactly how he intends to not
hold the advisers and jared kushner and ivanka trump accountable. who would hold the president accountable? it depends on the type of conflict, if he holds on to these businesses, we re going to have the mix that people are mixing trump business with the united states government business. and conversations that look like a quid pro quo. there could be an investigation by the department of justice under the gratuity statutes. with respect to the monuments clause, which simply prohibits foreign government payoffs for united states government officials through profit earring or anything else, that is something that the house of representatives might very well look at, and if somebody refuses, to stop taking illegal payments from foreign governments, they would have to resort to impeachment. we re not there yet. i hope this can be resolved. and the vast majority wanted a
monument clause applies? well, the monument clause applies, but the discussion is to what extent does it apply and in a concrete situation? in the case that the president of the united states violated or may be violated the monuments clause will you appoint a special counsel? we would have to examine that. i would not commit to this day at this time of appointing special counsel when i m not aware above precise factual situation in play. if there is a violation by the president s family of the stock act which prohibits the use of private or insider information for personal gain, will you apply special counsel? well, we ll have to evaluate that if such circumstance occurs and i would do my duty as i believe i should do it at the
and you have a new paper too. norm, you said the president-elect is basically cordingisaster here. with his businesses, 18 days away fromecoming president. it is fairly clear he has not going to fully die vest. it is congress obligated to hold his accountable? congress, the courts, hallie, your profession, journalism is obligated, and all of us are obligated to do all we can, because the president-elect is on a collision course with corruption. this is not just a matter of what looks or smells good. and it doesn t look good. it doesn t smell good. it is the constitution. there s a constitutional conflicts cause. the monuments clause, it s a fancy 18th century word, all it means is no foreign government money, cash, or other benefits to an american president. he s collecting those all over the world. so let me just to clarify
these things on the very face of it, if you look at the history and the purpose of the monuments clause arguably violate that provision and arguably give rise to an impeachment charge against him. any time a foreign government goes to a trump hotel, that s a benefit, a foreign official goes to the trump hotel, that s a benefit that government is providing to donald trump. any time a prosecutor, any time a regulator does anything in any of the business interests. donald trump has 111 businesses across 18 countries abroad. any time a regulator does anything, you heard when he broke the one china policy. right behind that is the story that trump is troying to get a hotel in taiwan. when he met with the president of japan, his daughter, who is trying to get an apparel deal, guess who, with the government of japan. and these lists go on and on. we ve had examples in turkey, examples in india, examples in the uk, examples in argentina, examples in georgia. so this is a very, very precarious