The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Trump sold all of his stock earlier this year, a spokesman said.

Transition team did not provide proof of sale, explain sell-off.

- By Julie Pace and Chad Day

President-elect Donald Trump sold all of his stocks in June as he plunged into the costly general election campaign, his transition team abruptly announced Tuesday.

His advisers provided no proof of the transactio­ns and would not explain the apparent sell-off.

The announceme­nt comes amid questions about potential conflicts of interest between Trump’s expansive financial holdings and the decisions that will reach his desk as president. Some details of Trump’s finances are unknown given that he never released his tax returns during the presidenti­al campaign, breaking decades of precedent.

On Tuesday, Trump said the government should cancel its multibilli­on-dollar order with Boeing for new Air Force One presidenti­al planes. Asked on a conference call with reporters whether Trump had investment­s in Boeing, spokesman Jason Miller said the president-elect had sold all of his stocks in June.

Trump’s campaign did not announce the sell-off at the time, despite the fact that it could have been politicall­y advantageo­us for the businessma­n to be seen taking steps to avoid potential conflicts of interest. Miller, as well as other transition officials and lawyers from the Trump Organizati­on, did not respond to requests to provide evidence of the transactio­ns. As of May, Trump reported owning millions of dollars’ worth of individual stocks, though he had more money in company-specific investment­s through bonds, mutual funds and private equity investment­s, according to his 104page public financial disclosure, which all presidenti­al candidates are required to file. Trump reported in May an investment in Boeing worth between $50,000 and $100,000. Other investment­s were in companies — such as Ford Motor Co., V F Corp. and Thermo Fisher Scientific — that in recent years have moved jobs outside the U.S., a practice that Trump heavily criticized during the campaign. The disclosure also showed Trump held a small amount of stock in Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners and at least $100,000 in the energy company Phillips 66, both of which are involved in the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline.

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