Remember when Donald Trump's tax attorney showed up during the transition next to a table packed with files in a big show of faith that Trump was separating himself from his business entanglements? That was attorney Sheri Dillon and she's back in the headlines Friday after the AP reported that she tried to get Trump out of personally certifying the 2016 financial disclosure form he plans to file in June. The Office of Government Ethics (OGE) pushed back on Dillon’s request, writes Julie Bykowicz:
Attorney Sheri Dillon said she saw no need for Trump to sign his 2016 personal financial disclosure because he is filing voluntarily this year. But OGE director Walter Shaub said his office would only work with Dillon if she agreed to follow the typical process of having Trump make the certification. That is standard practice for the thousands of financial disclosure forms OGE processes each year. [...]
“As we discussed, OGE will provide this assistance on the condition that the President is committed to certifying that the contents of his report are true, complete and correct,” Shaub wrote in a May 10 letter. “When we met on April 27, 2017, you requested that he be excused from providing this certification.”
The form will cover Trump's personal assets and liabilities during the time period from the general election through Trump's transition to office, but the form will still be nowhere near as revealing as his actual tax returns would be.
Also, just a note here on Trump’s attorneys, since lawyers are really starting to matter in his administration. He does have several lawyers on retainer, including his personal tax attorney, Dillon, but Trump still hasn’t hired an “outside counsel,” schooled in the ways of Washington, to guide him through all issues related to Russia/Comey/obstruction, etc.