Clinton, Trump Campaign Contributions: Goldman Sachs Bans Employees from Donating To Trump?
The Trump/Pence ticket is targeted as an example because Pence is still the sitting governor of IN, meaning that any donations to the GOP campaign could be interpreted as an attempt by the firm to influence local or state officials.
The new rules, first reported Tuesday by Politico, went into effect on September 1 and forbid the banking firm’s partners from donating to any federal candidate who is also a sitting state or local official, among other restrictions.
The same rule does not apply to the Clinton/Kaine ticket because Kaine is now a United States Senator, and therefore not a local or state official.
All the other emails had already been discovered in a previous State Department investigation: “The FBI-provided files simply showed that Clinton had asked an assistant to print out the emails”, Politico reports.
The company states that the new rules are to ensure that Goldman Sachs is not accused of a pay-to-play operation.
The policy change at Goldman Sachs doesn’t affect partners wishing to make donations to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The firm declined requests for comment on the new rules. And both campaigns’ finance directors Steven Mnuchin for Trump and Gary Gensler for Clinton are former Goldman employees who may be inclined to turn to their ex-colleagues for donations.
NEW YORK (AP) The nation’s largest investment bank is barring its top employees from contributing to certain political campaigns including Donald Trump’s White House bid.
The core reason behind the change is to avoid any conflict of interest where political donations to state and local officials can be seen as buying their business, such as managing state pension funds or helping raise municipal debt. Goldman employees also donated $371,245 to the Republican National Committee. Goldman Sachs had earlier agreed to pay $14.4 million.
In October 2013, Hillary Clinton was paid $225,000 to speak at Goldman Sachs “Builders and Innovators” conference held at the Ritz Carlton Dove Mountain Resort in Marana, Arizona.
Goldman says that Republicans too have spoken at its events. President Barack Obama, then the incumbent candidate, received $210,020 from Goldman Sachs. She is running alongside U.S. Sen. That’s because they hope that a Clinton presidency would come with Republican control of Congress and be hit by gridlock, with little chance of new Wall Street-targeted laws.