Democrats looking at insider-trading law to counter Trump family blend of business and politics

[bigtree]

Blake Hounshell ‏@blakehounshell 9m9 minutes ago
Democrats are looking at how Trump’s business could trip insider-trading law

Democrats are exploring a new strategy to pressure Donald Trump over his business conflicts of interest, arguing that an insider trading law would make it a crime for him to profit on information he learns as president.

The STOCK Act, adopted in 2012, was designed to restrict insider trading by members of Congress and their staff. But ethics lawyers say it also applies to the president and might extend to private holdings like Trump’s real estate ventures.

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York, who co-sponsored the law, is having her staff meet with outside experts and Democrats on the House oversight committee this week to study how the law could apply to Trump’s White House. Of particular interest is how Trump might violate the law if he told his children information that they acted on or invited them to participate in a government meeting where they learned something and used the information to make money.

“Donald Trump is not above the law, and I will be working with my colleagues in Congress over the coming weeks and months to ensure this law is enforced as strongly as possible,” Slaughter said, “so we can hold him accountable for any ethical or legal transgressions.”

read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trumps-businesses-insider-trading-232660

[liberalmuse]

1. The Orange Borgia...

And his little Borgias are going to bleed this country dry. We've already seen people willing to toss aside laws, ethics and common decency to accommodate him.

I'm fucking terrified because the worst of humanity now has a soulless puppet in power and they'll pretty much let him and his spawn do what they will as long as they can use him to push their agendas.

[bigtree]

2. Trump has made a lot of enemies, even among republicans

...coming back to bite him, I think.

[bigtree]

3. »