Sassy Action: Fight the Kleptocracy

Rep. Cummings, the ranking Democratic on the House Oversight Committee, has requested that the committee quickly review DJT for potential (hah!) conflicts of interest related to his business.  I think this is super important and is something that Congress needs to know the public is paying attention to.

An easy action we can all take now is to send some version of the attached letter to Rep. Chaffetz, the Committee chair. (yes, the same guy trying to impeach the IRS Commissioner. Sigh.)  This letter was drafted by one of the folks on the lawyer's FB group I'm a part of and I edited it a bit.  I can also turn it into talking points if you'd rather just call. 

A good article about this emerging kleptocracy is at WaPo, here are some highlights:

• Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are on the executive committee of Trump’s transition team, helping decide who gets hired for key positions and what the administration’s initial focus will be.

• During the Trump presidency, they will be running the Trump corporation on their father’s behalf, but the money it makes will still be his money. His main business is brand licensing, and it’s a business that is particularly amenable to enriching himself while he’s president.

• Multiple sources tell NBC News Trump received his first briefing on Tuesday and designated both Kushner and Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn as his staff-level companions for the briefings going forward.

Here is an example of how this might play out, again from WaPo:

"Well, imagine this scenario. Ivanka and Donny Jr. go to some country — let’s say Russia, for no particular reason — and arrange a meeting with a developer. They suggest a deal that the Trump corporation has carried out in places all over the world, in which the local developer builds a hotel or resort, then slaps the Trump name on it and pays the Trumps millions of dollars in licensing fees for the privilege. And let’s say that developer just happens to have ties, publicly known or otherwise, to the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. And let’s say he offers the Trump corporation very favorable terms — which, being savvy businesspeople, Ivanka and Donny accept. You’d then have a situation in which the Russian dictator has, through a proxy, deposited millions or even tens of millions of dollars into the bank account of the president of the United States."