Top-secret clearance allegedly requested for Trump children, transition team denies claim

Donald Trump’s White House transition team denies claims that the president-elect requested top-secret security clearances for three of his children as well as a son-in-law. This comes amid complicated business moves to avoid any conflict of interest.

Eric, Donald, Jr. and Ivanka Trump are going to have a very busy 2017. They will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization under a “blind” trust that is traditionally for people not related to the president, as it is meant to prevent the president from having potential conflicts of interest with his policies and companies.

On top of that, they will be helping President-elect Trump as members of his transition team. And on Monday, unnamed sources claimed Trump was interested in how his children could receive top-secret security clearances, both NBC News and CBS News reported.

A Trump transition team official denied the claims, telling Mic: “That’s not something I’m expecting right now.”

Whether the three Trump children will be able to receive top-secret clearance depends on Trump’s intentions for them in the White House. They would need to be designated by President Barack Obama’s White House as national security advisors to Trump in order to receive it.

Trump’s children’s involvement in the transition team has perturbed ethics officials, as it offers an unparalleled amount of conflicts of interest. If Trump plans to keep them involved as national security advisors, he will be able to do so himself once he is sworn in. However, that will do little to soothe the concerns of ethics officials, as nepotism laws prevent the president’s children from working in federal government.

The so-called “blind” trust that Trump has used to hand his company over to his children drew skepticism this weekend, particularly after it was found that Trump’s transition team included major donors, such as Steven Mnuchin, a financier with connections to both Goldman Sachs and George Soros.

However, Rudy Giuliani, who is widely considered a prospective Trump cabinet member, defended the move on CNN, claiming that the Trump Organization could not be sold or handed over to an impartial third party, because it would "basically put his children out of work."