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Donald Trump's lawyer says he is 'completely isolating' himself from his business without being required to

He has officially resigned from Trump Organisation and handed it to his sons

Rachael Revesz
New York
Wednesday 11 January 2017 12:39 EST
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Trump's lawyer says he is 'completely isolating' himself from his business

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Donald Trump has outlined how he will aim to avoid any conflicts of interest when he steps into the White House.

His lawyer, Sheri Dillon of Morgan Lewis, told reporters that he will resign from the Trump Organisation and hand over management to his sons, Don Jr and Eric.

His daughter, Ivanka Trump, will also resign from the family company and move with her husband, Jared Kushner, and her children to Washington DC.

The Trump Organisation will not carry out any foreign deals, the lawyer said, and for any new transactions, his sons will ask for written approval from an ethics adviser.

"He is voluntarily taking this on and conflicts of interest does not apply to the President and Vice President and they are not required to separate themselves [from their businesses]," she said.

The assets will not be put into a blind trust, because his lawyer said Mr Trump "cannot un-know" that he owns the Trump Organisation.

"He should not be expected to destroy the business he built,'" said Ms Dillon.

Instead, there will be two trusts - one for liquid assets like cash and government bonds, and the other holding illiquid assets like real estate. It will continue to receive the royalties from pre-existing licenses.

Selling those assets, as former presidents' ethics lawyers suggested, would create more conflicts of interest, she said.

She said that an "emolument" clause in the constitution, which prevents presidents from accepting gifts and bribes, does not include a foreign diplomat paying for a hotel room at his new venue in Washington DC.

He will donate all profits from foreign governments using his hotel rooms to the US Treasury, she added.

"We believe this structure and these steps complete the President-elect's desire to isolate himself from his business interests and that his sole interest is in the people of this country," Ms Dillon said.

Mr Trump himself said the actions were voluntary as there was no conflict of interest provision that applied to the role of President.

He added that he was offered a $2 billion deal to make several deals in Dubai, but he said he turned them down, even though he does not have to.

"I didn't have to turn it down, as I have no conflict situation as I'm president," he said.

He said he was "the only one" who could continue to run his company and the country, but he decided to relinquish his empire.

Mr Trump said he would announced his plans on how he would separate his presidency from his commercial ventures on 16 December, then he postponed his announcement for almost another month. He first announced at the end of November that he would divest in total.

He also said he would not release his tax returns as they were still "under audit", accusing reporters of being the only people to care about seeing them.

"I don't think so [voters wanting to see them]. I won. I don't think they care at all. I think you [reporters] care. First of all you learn very little from tax returns."

Summing up his press conference, Mr Trump waved to a pile of yellow folders by his side and explained his sons would take these documents about his businesses and look after them for eight years.

"I hope I can come back after eight years and say, 'Oh, you did a good job'. If not, I'll say, 'You're fired'," he said.

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