Sen. Warren Wants to Know What Role Goldman Played in Trump Exec Orders

February 10, 2017 at 11:00 AM
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Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tammy Baldwin,D-Wis., are asking Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein to disclose any role Goldman employees had in the drafting of two recent executive orders that "will directly benefit the company," they say.

In addition, the legislators want Blankfein to explain any lobbying done by the investment firm related to these executive orders and outline profits it expects to gain as these orders take effect.

This request follows a similar one sent a week ago to Gary Cohn, incoming director of the National Economic Council and a former Goldman Sachs executive, who received $284 million in expedited access to cash and stock payments from the firm when he left to join the Trump administration.

"The executive orders released by President Trump on [Feb. 3] raise our concerns about the degree to which Mr. Cohn's advice to President Trump is good for Wall Street, but bad for Americans," the senators wrote in the letter, which was sent Friday.

"Goldman Sachs would be a major beneficiary of these efforts to deregulate the financial industry; the company's stock rose by almost 5%, increasing your company's market capitalization by $4.1 billion the day of President Trump's announcement," they explained.

The investment bank's stock has risen close to 20% in the past three months vs. a 7.6% rise in the Dow Jones industrial average; for the last 30 days, Goldman shares are up 1.6% vs. a 1.2% drop in the Dow.

The Senators are asking for any and all communication between Goldman staff and Cohn related to the executive orders, as well as all communication between Goldman and other high-level administration staffers — such as Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman partner; Jay Clayton, the nominee for Securities and Exchange Commission chairman and a lawyer who represented Goldman Sachs; and chief strategist Steve Bannon, a former Goldman banker.

Goldman said in a statement on the matter, "We've had no involvement in the drafting of any executive orders."

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