Paul Ryan
Speaker of the House
H-232 The Capital
Washington, DC 20515
January 16, 2018
Dear Mr. Speaker,
Well, God bless National Public Radio for bringing together
Richard Painter and Norman Eisen (ethics advisors from both ends of the
political spectrum) this morning on Morning
Edition. They so perfectly summed up
what has been on my mind for a year now; they both agree that Donald Trump's
first year as president is the most unethical
in modern history and something needs to be done about it.
Donald Trump is under the false impression that he is exempt
from ethics laws because he is the President.
He actually tweeted, "The president can't have a conflict of
interest." He seems to think that
if the president does it then it's not illegal, like being the president gives
him a free pass somehow. I'm not sure
where this magical thinking comes from, but it is wrong and Painter and Eisen
(along with Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington or CREW) have clearly
outlined why.
This morning Richard Painter said,
"The
most serious, most dangerous problem with President Trump is he ignores
the
Constitution. And with respect to
financial conflicts of interest, the
Constitution
has a provision that prohibits any person holding a position of
trust in
the United States government from receiving profits and benefits
from
foreign governments. It's called the
emoluments clause but it is very clear.
The founders did not want anyone, including
the president, receiving profits and benefits
from dealings with foreign governments.
He has ignored that. He has refused to divest of
businesses that are
borrowing money from foreign governments
and foreign government
owned banks that are doing business with foreign governments. And that is one of many
serious violations of
the Constitution."
The good news here is that we have a clear constitutional
framework with guidelines and prohibitions that the President and his advisors can
use to navigate his time in office. The
bad news is that it is the responsibility of the Congress to hold him and his
advisors responsible - to ensure that the guidelines and prohibitions of the Constitution
are being upheld! So although we find
ourselves in the novel situation of having a president with extensive global
business interests, we aren't exactly running blind. We have the Constitution and over 200 years
of ethics protocol to guide us. You just
have to man up and enforce the Constitution!
I believe that Congress' failure to hold Donald Trump
accountable for his ethics violations is eroding the public trust. Faith in our government is at an all time
low. It is, in fact, why so many people
voted for Donald Trump in the first place; he was the "outsider" who
was going to "drain the swamp" that is Washington, DC. He wasn't going to do "business as
usual". Well his contempt for
ethics is now spreading like a contagion and reinforcing the popular belief
that not only is our government broken, but anything goes as long as you can
get away with it in the court of public opinion. It's not survival of the fittest
so much as survival of the brashest.
I fear what will become of our society if you don't do something
to stop the ethical violations of Donald Trump.
There are many legal movements underway across this country to do just that. You should check them out.
Sincerely,
Amy Beaton
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