After Donald Trump announced yesterday that he would not be divesting from his businesses—instead only turning over their management to his own sons—his refusal to abide by long-established precedent was blasted by the head of the Office of Government Ethics.
Now Rep. Elijah Cummings and 20 other Democrats have sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan urging him to demand Trump release documentation on those businesses for congressional review.
As a result, it is now up to Congress to exercise our Constitutional duty to act as an independent check on the Executive Branch by demanding all documents necessary to evaluate all of President-Elect Trump's global financial entanglements for conflicts of interest and constitutional violations—including in particular those involving Russian investors, business interests, and development partners. [...]
As Members of the House of Representatives, we have sworn a solemn oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, which means exercising robust oversight of the Executive Branch regardless of the President's political party. To date, however, the House has done nothing to obtain specific documents about President-Elect Trump's vast global entanglements.
The letter goes on to note Trump's known financial ties to Russian figures, including connections to Russian organized crime figures, and notes also that past Democratic requests for this very review have been rebuffed.
This would be what actually caring about government corruption looks like. That Ryan and the other Republican members of Congress have been, to date, uninterested in providing such oversight will be, the moment any untoward information about Trump's conflation of business and government duties comes out, on their own scalps as well.
Right now House Republicans—and Paul Ryan in specific—are abetting Trump's plan to run afoul of both the Constitution and government ethical standards. They are abetting whatever happens next, and Democrats are going to make damn sure that's spelled out here and now.