© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, responded to President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to pass off the Trump Organization to his eldest sons by saying the move was “inadequate” to alleviate to potential conflicts of interest. “We can’t risk creating the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for profit,” Shaub said at the Brookings Institution on Wednesday. “That’s why I was glad in November when the president-elect tweeted that he wanted to, as he put it, ‘in no way have a conflict of interest’ with his businesses. Unfortunately, his current plan cannot achieve that goal.” Trump announced the plan at a press conference in New York on Wednesday after speculation about the way in which he would handle his business holdings.