"Donald Trump’s transition team appears to have deviated from its own ethics rule barring lobbyists whose work for Trump would overlap with any matters on which they lobbied in the previous year," says POLITICO. The code of conduct says a member of the transition team must "disqualify" from involvement in transition issues if they are engaged in regulated lobbying. "But at least eight transition team members have done work that appears to flout that internal rule, Senate records show." Read more

"Ethics watchdogs call on Donald Trump to sever business ties," says USA Today. "He should move quickly to shift his assets into a strict blind trust to avoid conflicts of interest that could imperil his administration’s integrity," says ethics groups. Fred said "Since he has the power to affect all policies in this country, there are bound to be almost daily potential conflicts of interests between his business holdings and his decisions as president.” Read more

Billionaire Tom Steyer says "money no issue" in his battle to fight Trump. Steyer told Reuters that he will "spend whatever it takes to fight President-elect Donald Trump's pro-drilling and anti-regulation agenda." Read more

Trump leases his DC hotel building from government he will soon be in charge of. Trump Organization leaseses the building from the General Services Administration. The lease with the GSA says "no … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom,” according to a Washington Post op-ed. Read more

Top Democratic donors meet post-election. Major Democratic donors in the Democracy Alliance met in DC this week to regroup after spending millions on the election and "winding up with a resounding loss," according to Bloomberg. "The plan so far is stopping President-Elect Donald Trump from rolling back progress on the gamut of liberal issues." Read more