Prof. Richard Painter Co-Authors Guest Essay in New York Times About Gift of Jet From Qatar Could be Latest Ethics Violation by Trump

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, co-authored a guest essay in the New York Times about how Donald Trump’s possible acceptance of a jet from Qatar would likely be another ethics violation in his presidency. Prof. Painter and his co-authors, who each served as ethics counsels in three different White Houses wrote, “As lawyers responsible in recent White Houses for enforcing the rules against foreign government presents for presidents, we believe Donald Trump is transgressing them in the most brazen of ways. We’re not just talking about his apparent eagerness to accept an airplane valued at about $400 million from Qatar. His crypto entanglements are just as bad — perhaps even worse.” Specifically regarding the airplane deal, they wrote, “This arrangement has been blessed by his White House counsel, David Warrington, and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, on the theory that Mr. Trump is not getting the plane, the United States is. Yet Mr. Trump would be personally benefiting from the use of the plane while in office and could continue to do so after he leaves office. Functionally, this is a gift to him, notwithstanding the rationalizations offered by administration lawyers. ... The American people should make their disgust known: There is no room for this kind of flagrant disregard of the Constitution in the skies above or in digital wallets down below.”