Former ethics chief: Congress should investigate Trump's financial ties to Saudis as president defends murder investigation

Appearing on CNN's New Day on Saturday morning, the former Director of the Office of Government Ethics called upon Congress to investigate President Donald Trump's financial links to the Saudi government financiers in light of his defense of a proposed investigation of a murdered Washington Post columnist headed by the prince linked to his death.

Speaking with CNN host Victor Blackwell, Walter Shaub was asked about Trump seeming to side with a foreign government again.

"Why is the president again siding with a foreign government instead of, according to sources who speak with CNN, the intelligence community in the U.S.? You have to ask the question of potential conflict," Blackwell proposed. "The president says, his sons say that they run the organization that they have no deals, no business with the Saudis although the president, as a candidate, bragged about selling apartments for tens of millions of dollars to the Saudis."

"Remember that the original sin of the administration is that the president broke with the tradition of presidents divesting their conflicting financial interests. and then he went about promoting his properties with all of these trips to them," Schaub explained. "And now we've also got the situation where he's not disclosing really what his interests are."

"The financial disclosure form doesn't tell you who his business partners are or who his businesses owe money or what deals he's got in the works, so all we know is that he has said inconsistent things about it," he continued. "The burden of proof is on him because he chose to break with the tradition and keep those conflicts of interest. But this Congress has been complicit in allowing him to not answer questions and not pursue the issue."

"He doesn't get any benefit of the doubt, especially not when he's clearly been trying to monetize the presidency for two years," Shaub added. "I think this is a burning question and, sadly, it's not on the top of everyone's list because Congress and the president have done a good job of not making an issue out of it. If it had been his rival who won the election, we would have had hearing after hearing after hearing over her nonprofit charity -- but nothing so far on his for-profit businesses."

You can watch the video below via CNN: