Wyden urges review of Ivanka Trump’s trade relations

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has urged U.S. Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub to review potential conflicts of interest arising from White House advisor Ivanka Trump’s interactions with the Chinese government, including the recent approval of three Ivanka Trump brand Chinese trademarks.

In a letter Thursday to Director Shaub, Wyden raised concerns with Ms. Trump’s refusal to divest from her business interests and highlighted reports that Ms. Trump is working directly with an outside organization to establish a fund backed by countries who could improperly influence America’s policies abroad.

“I am concerned that Ms. Trump’s refusal to divest from her business interests, and her creation of a fund to solicit foreign money, provides foreign governments an opportunity to improperly influence United States trade and foreign policy,” Wyden wrote.

“As the director of the Office of Government Ethics, you have the authority to review potential ethics violations and notify the employee’s agency of any potential violation. I request that you review Ms. Trump’s plans to establish a ‘massive fund,’ as well as the level of control and financial interest Ms. Trump retains in her apparel business and determine whether her role as a White House advisor creates an impermissible conflict of interest.”

Sen. Wyden sent a separate letter to the Inspector General of the State Department raising concerns that the State Department was improperly using taxpayer dollars to promote Mar-a-Lago, the President’s privately owned club. Mr. Trump, his associates and his family members using their official positions for financial gain has been an ongoing issue within this administration.

On another matter, Wyden issued the following statement Friday in response to the National Security Agency’s announcement it will no longer sweep up emails that are merely about foreign surveillance targets, under the FISA 702 program.

“This change ends a practice that could result in Americans’ communications being collected without a warrant merely for mentioning a foreign target,” Wyden said. “For years, I’ve repeatedly raised concerns that this amounted to an end run around the Fourth Amendment. This transparency should be commended. To permanently protect Americans’ rights, I intend to introduce legislation banning this kind of collection in the future.”

This “about” collection is one of several areas of surveillance under FISA Section 702 that yden has raised as threatening Americans’ liberties. He has repeatedly called on the executive branch to finally reveal how many Americans have their phone calls, emails and other communications swept up – without warrants – under this surveillance program, which is intended to target people overseas.

Wyden and former Sen. Mark Udall originally asked for this number in 2011 . He renewed his request in 2012 , and pushed the executive branch to reveal in 2014 that the NSA, CIA and FBI search for Americans’ communications without obtaining a warrant.

Wyden has spent six years seeking how many law-abiding Americans have their calls and messages swept up under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The program expires at the end of this year, but Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats called renewing Section 702 his top legislative priority this year.