President Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer said Wednesday that he will not give up his dad Donald Trump’s vast wealth in the presidential election, calling on his son to stop using his father’s name in advertisements and campaign messages and for his father to resign.
In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, attorney Michael Cohen wrote that Trump is entitled to his “most of the assets that he has in the United States, including real estate and real estate interests in New York City, as well as other assets.”
Cohen wrote that “with the assistance of counsel” Trump is trying to keep “his father’s assets in the U.S. at all costs, including the possibility of being a nominee for President of the United Kingdom, the possibility that his father might run for President again in 2020, and the possibility for the United State to enter into a trade agreement with the EU,” according to the Associated Press.
Trump Jr.’ s lawyer declined to respond to a request for comment.
Trump Jr., his two adult children and a few aides also did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The letter came a day after Trump Jr .
issued a statement in which he said he was committed to keeping his father out of politics, saying the “disturbing nature” of the emails and videos suggest “he is willing to give up some of his assets.”
The messages have come as Trump Jr has continued to focus on a possible 2020 run for president, even as his father, former President Donald J. Trump, has been largely out of the public eye since the 2016 election.
Trump Sr.’s daughter, Ivanka, said in a statement Wednesday that she is confident her father will make an “effective and informed decision” on his future, calling it “a privilege to serve with him in the White House.”
Cohens letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and other committee members asks that Trump cease his campaign activities and stop using the name Donald Trump in advertising.
It also asks that the Trump campaign divest from all of his father s businesses and refrain from using his name in campaign messages.
The president has continued publicly to praise his father and has repeatedly spoken about his belief that Trump Jr and his wife, Ivanka Trump, have been “very loyal and helpful” to him, though he has declined to name them as co-conspirators in the emails.
The emails and other documents show Trump Jr.-Trump Jr. discussing a plan to have his father donate some of Trump s wealth to charity.
The plan, first reported by The Washington Post, was first floated in February and is described in the letter as a way for the president to support his father financially and to show that his son was not in a position to commit to donating money to charity, according to The Post.
Cohen said that Trump has “not disclosed all of the personal assets” his father has in his name.
He said that since he has been advised that Trump will not be able to donate the money, Cohen has taken the “very unusual step of requesting that his name not appear in any advertising or campaign communications.”
“Mr. Trump and his associates have consistently made it clear that their goal is to maintain a distance from their father and his activities, and that the only way they can be sure that their father is not a contributor to the Clinton Foundation is for Mr. Trump to relinquish ownership of his vast wealth,” Cohen wrote.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump Sr. was asked to divest his businesses in 2011 after it emerged he was a co-owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. after Trump bought the casino chain in 1993.
Cohn said in his letter that Trump’s actions “should be a wake-up call for all members of the Trump family to refrain from continuing to engage in any such activities and to divest from assets in his ownership.”
