On Monday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," former White House Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub castigated President Donald Trump for trying to divert the next G7 summit to one of his golf properties, calling it a "brazen" conflict of interest.
"Well, Walter, I hope this isn't a dumb question, but isn't it fairly straightforward here that the president owns the resort, he would be inviting world leaders and dozens of people who come with him, security details, advisors, et cetera to pay for rooms at that resort which would then go into the president's pocket?" asked host Jim Sciutto. "I mean, is that as simple as it seems in terms of a conflict of interest?"
"By any definition you care to use," said Shaub. "This is a conflict of interest because he's going to benefit by the outcome of this. In fact, if he was any federal employee other than the president of the United States, it would be a crime for him to be involved in this activity. He's exempt from the criminal conflict of interest law but that wasn't intended as a perk of high office and it was expected that he would act as though he were covered by it."
"This marks something more brazen than we've seen in the past," added Shaub. "It's a departure in the sense that this is an overt effort to profit from a specific contracting action of the federal government, and it raises questions certainly under the foreign emoluments clause, a federal official isn't supposed to have a contract with the United States."
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