White House allowing public to request financials for senior staff, except Trump and Pence
— -- The White House said today it will start making financial disclosure information on senior Trump administration officials available to the public through a request system.
Starting this evening, members of the public will be able to fill out a form to request the financial disclosure information for senior level staff who are either commissioned officers or earn more than $161,755 -- as required by law.
In response, they will be sent information on salaries and assets that officials had to disclose when they entered government jobs.
However, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will not make their information available unlike former President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who released their financial disclosure forms each year in addition to their tax returns.
The Obama administration had a similar system for making requests for financial disclosure information.
Two administration officials urged caution about the documents, which contain information from "the time when the individuals came into office."
The officials said the process of identifying potential conflicts for the officials who entered into this administration versus previous administrations was complex given their wealth.
"These are incredibly successful individuals," one official said. "Very high net worth, very sophisticated complex asset structures, numerous sub-LLCs, trusts and other items all of which have to be worked through."
The officials said there should be disclosures available for around 180 upper-level individuals in the administration. Officials entering in the administration had 30 days to fill out the forms and a few took advantage of 45-day extensions granted on a case-to-case basis.
For example, one official noted, Jared Kushner had to resign from 266 positions before he was able to earn a certificate of divestiture.
As for Ivanka Trump, the officials said most of her assets will be listed in Kushner's filing, though she has 28 days from now to file her own disclosure form with the administration.
The president's daughter recently joined the administration after ethics concerns were raised about her informal role as an adviser to her father.
