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Warren Says Her Administration Will Investigate Trump Officials for Corruption

Warren Says Her Administration Will Investigate Trump Officials for Corruption

(Bloomberg) -- Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday if elected she would set up a Justice Department task force to investigate whether any Trump administration officials committed crimes while in office.

The Democratic presidential candidate accused President Donald Trump of leading “the most corrupt administration in history” and said she’d ask the Justice Department to prove it.

“There are public reports of potentially illegal corruption in every corner of his administration,” Warren wrote in a Medium post accompanying the proposal. “If we are to move forward to restore public confidence in government and deter future wrongdoing, we cannot simply sweep this corruption under the rug in a new administration.”

The task force would determine whether Trump administration officials violated federal bribery laws, insider trading laws, and other “anti-corruption and public integrity laws” during their service, Warren said.

She cited questions about whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’s stock holdings pose a conflict of interest and about whether HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s son was improperly involved in official business as potential targets of her administration’s probes.

Warren said she’d review the work of heads of independent federal agencies -- who usually stay on through changes in administrations -- and potentially remove them.

She also pledged to review federal contracts that came about during the Trump administration for potential conflicts of interest.

The move reignited memories of the 2016 general election campaign, when Trump threatened to direct the Justice Department to investigate Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“It makes sense that a president would seek to have laws that they like enforced, but it is a definite change politically to have prospective presidential nominees signal that they will use their agencies to investigate political rivals,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, professor of political science at the University of Houston.

Warren has made tackling corruption central to her campaign message. In September, she rolled out a broad plan aimed at strengthening limits on lobbyists.

A Warren aide emphasized that the task force would work independently of the White House. The campaign cited the task forces set up to investigate the 2006 Enron scandal, and President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement task force that investigated mortgage fraud as similar examples.

“It is a thin line to walk and a dangerous line to blur between the politics and the independence of these agencies,” Rottinghaus said. “In this case you are talking about the end result being potentially criminal charges against political opponents so no matter how independent the task force may seem on design or implementation, there will always be questions about how this worked in practice.”

Democratic candidate Joe Biden said in November that he would not direct the Justice Department to investigate Trump.

On Tuesday, Warren said her administration wouldn’t hire lobbyists unless they’ve had a six-year cooling off period. She said she’d also forgo hiring for-profit federal contractors unless she deems it’s in “the national interest.” Executives of companies or banks that have broken federal law or are under investigation would be barred from her administration for six years, as would those who receive any form of compensation, such as bonuses, for accepting a government position.

To work in a Warren administration, officials would have to divest from any stocks, bonds or other holdings that may be directly influenced by the agency they work for. Senior officials would have to let go of “all complex investments” like stocks and bonds, commercial real estate holdings and privately-owned businesses, and they would have to let go of any interests in family trusts that could pose a conflict of interest.

Asked in October whether giving restrictions would discourage qualified people from working for the government, Warren said, “Good riddance to them.”

Warren committed to announcing her choices for cabinet and other top nominations by mid-December of 2020 and to filling all senior and mid-level White House positions by Inauguration Day.

To contact the reporter on this story: Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou in Washington at megkolfopoul@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Magan Crane

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