MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – Some of the conflict-of-interest issues swirling around President-elect Donald Trump in Washington are playing out on a smaller scale in West Virginia, where the richest man in the state – an Appalachian coal baron with real estate, resort and farm holdings, too – is about to be sworn in as governor.
Democratic Gov.-elect Jim Justice, like Trump, has refused to shed his holdings, giving assurances he can be trusted to act honorably. Like Trump, he has put his business empire in the hands of family members, though he said as recently as last month that he would put his holdings in a blind trust.
So far, his arm’s-length management approach, like Trump’s, has fallen short of what some ethics watchdogs would prefer to see.
“It sounds like he’s taking a page out of President-elect Trump’s book, which may try to remove the conflict of interest, but in actuality, it does not,” said Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonprofit watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. “As long as he has an ownership interest in any of his business, he will always be conflicted and subject to controversy and litigation.”
One difference in West Virginia, though, is that Justice, like some other governors around the country, is subject to more stringent conflict-of-interest rules than even the president of the United States, who is exempt from the provisions that apply to Cabinet members and other government employees.