On All In With Chris Hayes tonight on MSNBC, Chris quoted Trump as saying, in an interview with The New York Times not long after the election: "The law is totally on my side, meaning the president can't have a conflict of interest ... The president of the United States is allowed to have whatever conflicts he wants."
Although the president is limited by the "emoluments clause" of the Constitution, which, according to Wikipedia, "... prohibits the Federal government from granting titles of nobility, and restricts members of the government from receiving gifts, emoluments, offices or titles from foreign states without the consent of the United States Congress," he is indeed not subject to any conflict-of-interest laws that bind literally everyone else in government (except, apparently, Supreme Court justices); he is indeed "allowed to have whatever conflicts he wants."
However, Chris pointed out, the conflict-of-interest exemption does not apply to his relatives or anyone else on his team, and depending on the nature of any violation, those people could actually be subject to criminal charges under conflict-of-interest laws.
However, the odious Newt Gingrich appears to have found a loophole. In an article by Ken Meyer at Mediaite, in an article entitled "Gingrich: Trump Can Pardon Advisers Who Break Ethics Laws, Present Conflicts of Interest," Gingrich appeared on The Diane Rehm Show and said:
“In the case of the president, [Trump] has a broad ability to organize the White House the way he wants to. He also has, frankly, the power of the pardon. I mean, it is a totally open power, and he could simply say, ‘Look, I want them to be my advisers, I pardon them if anybody finds them to have behaved against the rules, period.’ And technically, under the Constitution, he has that level of authority.”And we thought George W. -- and some have said Obama too -- were running "an imperial presidency." You ain't seen nothin' yet.
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