Congressional Democrats plan to launch a series of investigations into Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner if they retake the House of Representatives from Republicans during the November midterm elections.
California Representative Adam Schiff spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday about recent reports that Trump and and her husband had collected some $82 million in outside income while working in official capacities at the White House.
Discussing the massive income, Blitzer asked, “Any ethical concerns here, or legal concerns, from your perspective?” Schiff replied:
Both ethical and legal–certainly if any of this income is derived from foreign sources that are violating the emoluments clause, that’s a serious problem. And one of the issues we have now with the Republican majority in Congress unwilling to do any oversight of this, we simply don’t know whether the foreign policy of the United States is up for sale.
Schiff continued, noting, “There are a lot of allegations about the Kushners trying to get money from the [Arab] Gulf nations. Was that influencing policy of the United States viz. Saudi Arabia or antagonism toward Qatar? We don’t know and we shouldn’t have to ask these questions. That’s why in the past, presidents have divested themselves. In this case, the First Family, which has an important policy role in the administration, has not divested–not fully. And we have to wonder, ‘Is Ivanka getting trademarks from China for a certain reason?’ The Chinese investment of half a billion dollars in a Trump-branded property in Indonesia. Did that influence the president’s decision to reverse sanctions against ZTE? We shouldn’t have to wonder.”
Schiff repeated his claim that none of the Congressional bodies who would typically look into such issues were willing to perform needed investigations because of GOP fealty to Trump. Blitzer then asked, “And you say that would change if Democrats were the majority after the midterm elections?”
Schiff replied, “Absolutely. We would be back to governing as well and back to a very different kind of policy. But importantly, we would be doing oversight again. And making sure that the country is being run for the benefit of its citizens–not for the benefit of Donald Trump or Ivanka or Jared Kushner or anyone else in the family.”
[image via via Win McNamee and Getty Images; video courtesy CNN]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
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