So wait a min they are going after trump for the 4 years he was in office or before that???? I ask because trump was not in charge of his business while in office of the president....the Democrats made him give up control....
Based on actions and the relevant legal documents, I would not say Trump gave up control of his business.
In Jan, 2017, Trump had a press conference and made a big show of putting his Trump Organization business into a trust. It was then claimed that action would isolate Trump from his business, which would be run by two of his adult children.
That action was never convincing to anyone who knows even a little about trusts. Trump did not place his business in a blind trust run by trustees with whom he'd have little or no contact, which would truly isolate him from his business. He put it in a revocable trust run by his children with whom he maintains frequent if not daily contact.
Also, the nature of his business (a Trump-branded collection of real estate and other entities) is not like a securities portfolio that can be easily hidden by a blind trust. Even if a blind trust had been established, it would have been known to Trump which government actions would benefit the Trump properties and which would be adverse.
When the trust was announced, the Wall Street Journal then reported, "Some ethics experts say the trust and other measures don't create the firewall needed to fully insulate [Trump] from his holdings." (
Source) I agree.
Additionally,
Previously unreported changes to President Trump’s trust documents stipulate that the trust “shall distribute net income or principal to Donald J. Trump at his request.”
www.propublica.org
Given the nature of the trust and his relationship with his children, Trump has been in clear control of his business interests the entire time he was president; which is a major conflict of interest, grossly improper, and some (including me) would say illegal.
The January 2017 press conference that announced the trust was a sham, unconvincing to his critics, contradicted by the facts, but highly effective in duping his non-critical supporters into believing Trump had somehow done the right thing.
