Related News
 |
| Rep. Jason Chaffetz said that "as issues come up, we'll deal with them one at a time" on potential investigations into President Donald Trump and his administration. | Getty |
Chaffetz’s committee released a proposed agenda this week, listing 43 items for potential investigation. Not listed among them is anything having to do with possible conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and the massive business empire in which he has retained a stake. But because Trump is the head of the U.S. government, Chaffetz (R-Utah) said he will by default end up under investigation.
“This is the Trump administration so by definition all of those 43 items are going to be about what's going on in the Trump administration. Now we're obviously going to have to look back. If you're going to look at what the government has been doing that will be on the Obama administration,” Chaffetz told CNN’s “New Day.” “I will deal with the situations with Donald Trump one at a time. I am not going to personally target the president. I didn't do that with Barack Obama. But as issues come up, we'll deal with them one at a time.”
Among other issues, Chaffetz has pledged to continue his investigation into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. Chaffetz posted a picture of himself shaking hands with Clinton at Trump’s inauguration to his Instagram account, pledging to continue his investigation of her explaining that the photo merely showed him thanking the former secretary for her service.
While it was not among the 43 items listed on the committee’s proposed agenda, Chaffetz said Wednesday that he had recently received his requested copy of the lease Trump’s company signed with the General Services Administration for the Old Post Office building, the site of a Trump luxury hotel. The Utah Republican noted that the president is “leasing the hotel, but he’s also now the chief executive,” and said now that he has been given the contract, “we’ll see where that goes.”
Ultimately, Chaffetz said, chatter about potential conflicts of interest for Trump is mostly bluster from Democrats mired in the minority in both houses of Congress.
“I know the Democrats are flailing about this issue and they want to stir the pot. It's about the only thing they have to do at this point,” he said. “I think the president is required to do his financial disclosure. By all accounts he has done that. The president is exempt from most of all of the conflict of interest laws.”