Home Oversight Democrats hoping to focus on potential conflicts of curiosity beneath President Trump see leverage in a previous ethics invoice from Chair James Comer (R-Ky.).
That proposal, which Comer launched amid his wide-ranging investigation into former President Biden, would have required Biden and his household to make a sequence of disclosures.
With Trump now within the White Home, Connolly is hoping to flip the script, calling on Comer to endorse his personal laws even with a Republican within the White Home.
It’s one of many first exchanges between Comer and newly minted rating member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who referred to as the chair’s laws from final 12 months the “Republican gold standard for presidential ethics.”
“This Congress, I hope you will use the power of this Committee in a manner that meets the bill’s underlying goals of presidential transparency and accountability. This is not merely a matter of consistency—it is a fundamental test of our Committee’s integrity and its commitment to the American people,” Connolly wrote in a letter to Comer.
“I agree with you that the requirements in your legislation should be applied to the incoming Trump Administration, President Trump, his family, and his confidants. We must act quickly and in a bipartisan manner to establish ethics rules for the Trump White House that meet our shared standards.”
Talking with The Hill Wednesday, Connolly stated the letter was meant to strain Comer “to be consistent.”
“Remember they spent the last three years investigating Joe Biden and came up pretty short,” he stated.
“So how about giving us the same resources for the next two years to look at Mr. Trump, so we’re balancing things. And we’ll see if we do better than they did in coming up with something.”
But when utilizing his invoice to leap begin evaluation into Trump’s personal moral points was meant to needle Comer, it didn’t seem to. He referred to as his new ranker “a good man” and “a breath of fresh air.”
“When [Rep. Jamie] Raskin (D-Md.) walked in the room, my blood pressure will go up 30 points,” Comer stated, referring to his former rating member.
“Connolly, though we disagree on a lot, my blood pressure is stable when he walks in the room. You know what I mean? He’s a I think he’s a good person, and I think he’s sincere.”
Nonetheless, he defended Trump’s personal enterprise dealings, saying they’d not be the gold mine congressional Democrats could anticipate.
“I think that Trump is transparent with his businesses. He talks about them all the time. He campaigned about them,” Comer instructed The Hill.
“I don’t think Trump is the problem that you all think he is, because with respect to that bill, he’s already disclosing [his interests]. There’s no secret hotel in Dubai. If he has a hotel in Dubai, I can guarantee you, he’s talked about how it’s the nicest hotel in Dubai….His name would be on it. It would have TRUMP, and he would talk about it.”
Comer launched the Presidential Ethics Reform Act final Congress amid his investigation into Biden. It’s largely a transparency invoice, requiring disclosure to the committee quite than imposing any penalties.
Whereas it was a bipartisan invoice — former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) was a high co-sponsor — most of the reforms have been impressed by the GOP investigation into the Biden household.
For instance, it could require detailing any loans made to members of the family and documenting when rapid family be a part of the president on Air Drive One, together with whether or not the journey was for enterprise functions. Each conditions have been raised by Republicans after Biden, whereas serving as vice chairman, loaned cash to his brother and had his son accompany him on journeys.
Nevertheless it additionally required presidents to reveal any overseas revenue earned both by themselves or their family. It will additionally require these high executives, as soon as elected, to share their tax returns and to reveal any conflicts of curiosity.
Democrats have lengthy identified that the Trump household has its personal moral entanglements.
Trump himself has rolled out a sequence of recent enterprise ventures past his line of inns, pointing to a brand new cryptocurrency with World Liberty Monetary, whose largest backer is a China-born investor dealing with a lawsuit from the Securities and Trade Fee. Trump has additionally launched one other cryptocurrency token titled “$Trump” which options his likeness.
Connelly referred to as the ventures “an easy mechanism for unscrupulous actors and foreign interests to buy the President’s favor.”
And thru his resort and property enterprise, Trump signed a deal to develop a multibillion-dollar resort and golf course on land owned by the Omani authorities, and the Trump household has additionally deepened its relationships with LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed golf group that had already held quite a few tournaments at Trump programs.
The enterprise is backed by the identical Saudi sovereign wealth fund that invested $2 billion within the non-public fairness agency of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
“These examples are not isolated incidents—they reflect a pattern of ethical disregard that characterized the first Trump Administration,” Connolly wrote.
Comer’s crew fired again, pointing to a pardon given to Hunter Biden amid two felony circumstances on tax and gun prices in addition to a preemptive pardon given to brother James Biden, who will not be dealing with any prices.
“Democrats have reached the height of hypocrisy. Republicans exposed how Joe Biden sold out the American people by allowing his family and their cronies to profit from selling access to his influence, totaling nearly $30 million,” a spokeswoman for the committee stated.
“Yet, Democrats have acted solely as defense counsel for the Bidens. Now that President Biden issued unprecedented pardons to the Biden Crime Family in response to our findings, Democrats refuse to condemn these actions. If Democrats truly care about presidential ethics, they must first acknowledge the evidence we uncovered,” the spokeswoman added.
Comer instructed The Hill he’d be prepared to refile his invoice, but additionally didn’t suppose it could be a high precedence for a GOP targeted on implementing Trump’s agenda.
“Do I want to do it? I do. Is it going to be at the beginning of this Congress? No, we got to do this budget reconciliation bill, we got to do a million things to get through,” he stated.
His laws final 12 months struck a nerve with the Biden White Home.
The Hill reported that Biden’s crew pressured Democratic lawmakers to desert plans to co-sponsor the invoice, with three agreeing to take action. Some lawmakers later stated they felt Comer’s effort was too partisan.
Connolly’s letter ends with a plea to Comer to work collectively on reviewing any moral transgressions.
“Ethical governance is not a partisan goal—it is a shared responsibility. I urge you to demonstrate the Committee’s commitment to ethical governance and to ensure that no administration, no matter how powerful, is above the law,” he wrote.
“By working together, the Committee can send a clear message that ethical governance is a bipartisan priority, not a tool for partisan advantage.”
Comer didn’t dismiss the likelihood.
“They’re always going to hate Trump, you know, they all hate Trump, but I do think we can find common ground on things like improper payments – things like that – in that committee.”
Mike Lillis contributed.
