The Intercept: Trump Dropped the Ball on Paperwork to Officially Resign From Several Businesses

Mattathias Schwartz
July 12 2017, 10:42 a.m.

OVER HIS LONG career in business, Donald Trump took a minimalist approach to ethics. He stiffed contractors, dodged creditors, slapped his name on projects that he had almost nothing to do with, and treated his federal tax bills like parking tickets. He did the bare minimum, in other words, to avoid being hauled into court as a cheat.

Trump made little effort to hide his scofflaw attitude during the campaign. Instead, he framed it as a strength. Dodging taxes “makes me smart,” he bragged during a televised debate. If he’d chosen to pay up, the money “would be squandered.” And, unlike every major-party presidential candidate from Ronald Reagan on, Trump refused to release his tax returns.

A few days before Trump took office, he did spend a few minutes talking in public about ethics. On January 11, standing behind a desk with a theatrically high pile of documents and manila folders, Trump announced that he would step aside and hand control of the Trump Organization to his two sons and a company lawyer. “The president-elect will have no role in deciding whether the Trump Organization engages in any new deal,” said Sheri Dillon, a tax lawyer who Trump hired to manage potential conflicts of interest. Dillon spoke of “the wall that we are building between President-elect Trump and the Trump Organization.” Her promises fell well short of putting Trump’s assets in a blind trust. Instead, Trump’s business would be controlled by his family and chief financial officer. It later turned out that he would even be able to withdraw money from his businesses at his liking without any disclosure, according to documents filed by Trump in February and reported on in April by ProPublica.

Dillon was essentially promising some ethical baby steps. At first, it looked as though Trump was going to abide by her plan. Shortly after his inauguration, he released a letter, dated January 19. It appeared to show him resigning from more than 400 corporate entities connected to the Trump Organization’s businesses. Alex Garten, a Trump Organization lawyer, told CNN that the Trump Organization would update the company’s official state records “in the ordinary course as and when required by law.”

Now, a review of state corporate records by The Intercept shows that the “wall” between Trump’s presidency and his businesses is even flimsier than what Dillon had promised. As of June 11, six months after Trump’s press conference, New York state continued to have Donald J. Trump listed as CEO or president at four different entities — all of which he previously claimed to have resigned from. Two of those entities made new filings on June 29 and June 30 that replaced Trump’s leadership with his immediate family and employees. The new filings were made after repeated phone calls and emails from The Intercept to the White House and the Trump Organization asking why Trump was still listed on state documents as being in charge of four Trump Organization entities.

more
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/12/trump-dropped-the-ball-on-paperwork-to-officially-resign-from-several-businesses/