WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has submitted his annual financial disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, and it is expected to be released publicly in the coming days.
Trump’s disclosure, which includes all of 2017 and part of 2018, is being closely watched to see whether it will disclose the $130,000 paid to porn star Stormy Daniels on his behalf by his attorney Michael Cohen. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said during a Fox News interview that the president had repaid Cohen.
Ethics experts say that if that money isn’t disclosed, Trump could be in violation of ethics laws for failing to disclose a reportable item, a violation for which others have been prosecuted.
The White House confirmed that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence filed their financial disclosures Tuesday, along with the reports of some 25,000 senior executive branch officials, but declined to comment further. The Office of Government Ethics said the president’s report is under review.
Trump’s disclosure will also be the first extended look at how his businesses have performed since he became president in January 2017. When Trump took office, he refused to fully divest from his global business, instead putting his assets in a trust controlled by his two sons and a senior executive. Still, Trump can take back control of the trust at any time and he’s allowed to withdraw cash from it as he pleases.
Trump’s previous report, covering January 2016 through the first few months of 2017, showed he had at least $1.4 billion in assets and at least $594 million in income.
My money is on the forms not mentioning the payoff in any way and when Trump is queried on them, his response will be, “The paperwork is in order. Next question.”
Trump probably dictated the disclosure, same as he did with the Bornstein letter about how he was the healthiest man to ever run for POTUS.
IOW, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.
I’m not sure it’s so easy for him to slide on this, with Stormy and her sidekick ready to make an issue of it. If he doesn’t report it he’s violated campaign finance law. If he does, he has to try to make that “I did nothing and paid 130K to spare my wife’s feelings” crap fly. While he’s flopping on the dock with all that, it stirs up things like that supposed Broidy $1 million payoff with the abortion that people think was quite possibly Trump.
Is there an “Income From Violations of the Emoluments Clause” category on the disclosure form?
ETA: Might need to attach some extra pages to that one.
With Mueller holding the gaff