TRUMP'S NEW CONFLICT OF INTEREST COULD INVOLVE PAYING OFF OFFICIALS TO NOT TALK ABOUT RUSSIA
www.newsweek.com/trump-legal-fees-staffers-conflict-interest-715995?amp=1
As the investigation into Russian collusion builds, President Donald Trump has started paying his own legal bills, rather than using campaign donations or charging the Republican National Committee, and has created a fund to finance the legal bills of his former and current staffers—which could violate ethics laws if there’s a chance it could influence their testimonies.
After several months of the Republican Party picking up the tab, the president started paying in order to make things “even,” Trump’s attorney John Dowd confirmed on Friday to Reuters. The payments are for Trump’s personal lawyers who are helping him navigate the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether he obstructed justice by firing former FBI Director James Comey in May.
But it’s not just his own legal bills that he’s paying—Trump has also established a legal fund that pays for staffers who are also involved in the investigation, a method that has caught attention from the Office of Government Ethics. There is no law that bars the president from giving gifts and money to his staffers, but in the face of a tricky investigation, this case raises questions of whether Trump’s financial help will influence staffer’s testimonies, said Walter Shaub, former head of the ethics office.
[...]The Republican Party has shelled out even more for Donald Trump Jr., paying more than $500,000 in legal fees as he faces allegations of collusion as well, especially for his reported meeting with a Russian official and contact with WikiLeaks.