Donald Trump hasn’t yet taken office, but congressional Democrats already are gearing up to take aim.
The top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent a letter to the Republican chairman earlier this week, calling for a review into Trump’s financial arrangements “to ensure that he does not have any actual or perceived conflicts of interest.”
The letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, comes as ethics groups have called for Trump to divest from his companies or set up a blind trust to run them. His campaign has said Trump plans to have his three eldest children run the companies, but critics say the arrangement would not meet the criteria of a blind trust.
Democrats are in the clear minority and may not be able to stop Trump and the Republican-led House and Senate, but are intent on making a case.
“For the past six years, you and other Republicans in Congress have launched numerous investigations against President (Barack) Obama and Secretary (Hillary) Clinton, and some of these have been used for partisan political purposes,” Cummings said in the letter to committee chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark has also introduced legislation that would require presidents and vice presidents to put assets in a certified blind trust or disclose to the Office of Government Ethics when decisions are made that would affect their personal finances.