White House to Release Financial Disclosures for Cohn, Kushner

EghtesadOnline: The White House will release Friday evening the financial disclosures of about 180 staff members, including Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. who now chairs the National Economic Council, and Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to President Donald Trump, a senior official said.

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01 April 2017

The disclosures will show the assets the officials held at the time they began employment in the White House, and may include certain investments that they have since sold to avoid conflicts of interest, the official said Friday in a briefing with reporters, according to Bloonmberg.

With a combined net worth of more than $12 billion, Trump’s senior staff, including his Cabinet, is already seen as the wealthiest in modern history. Trump’s appointees have brought a far more expansive range of investments for federal ethics officials to review than previous administrations. Trump himself has also been criticized by the federal ethics agency and Democratic lawmakers who have said he hasn’t gone far enough to distance himself from his own businesses.

Public filers include White House employees earning $161,755 or more and those holding "commissions of appointment" from the president himself, according federal ethics rules. That includes unpaid officials. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, whom the White House announced would become an employee subject to the rules, will both be unpaid.

Because Ivanka Trump only recently joined the administration, her financial disclosure, which she has 30 days to complete, is not among those the White House is releasing, the official said.

Officials are also required to enter into ethics agreements with the White House that will spell out how to avoid conflicts of interest -- including resigning from corporate positions and divesting certain holdings. Those agreements will not be made public, the White House official said. President Barack Obama’s White House had a similar policy.

Regardless, however, Trump signed an executive order requiring that his appointees agree to a two-year recusal period for matters involving former employers or clients.

Kushner and Cohn are among officials who have already taken steps to remove conflicts. According to the White House official, Kushner has resigned from 266 positions and already divested from most if not all investments that would pose a potential conflict.