donation, this is a donation to his wallet. >> vote of no confidence. is american democracy failing? >> did you know about the illegal ballot harvesting? >> congressional dysfunction. even when both sides agree, it's still gridlock. >> when donald trump said, we're like living in a third world country when it comes to our infrastructure, do you agree with him? >> i don't disagree. >> drain the swamp! good evening. i'm meteorologist bill karins with your 10:00 east coast time dorian update. we have the new path, forecasted intensity coming up at the top of the next hour. join me then and i'll give you all the latest. it is now beginning to move over grand bahama island, the eastern tip of the island is now moving into the eye. this is about as strong a storm as you'll ever see. 185-mile-per-hour winds and it is walking to freeport at 5 miles per hour. due west is the general motion. the forecast path from the hurricane center does have it over freeport for about the next

24 hours, and then that parallel coast to the east coast of florida, it does look like they're going to get grazed. it's going to be a very close call to see how strong the winds are on the coast. as of now the eye is expected to remain offshore, then we're going to watch the storm going up along the southeast coastline. here it is on radar. there's freeport, and you can watch the eye of one of the most powerful hurricanes we've seen on radar in the last 84 years. wow. these binoculars make you feel like you're in the club. it's like a $100,000 feeling for free. it looks really quiet. so does that just mean nobody's around? >> i don't think the season technically has started yet, number one. number two, the president's not here. he's in washington.

>> this is mar-a-lago, the private resort in palm beach. it's one of many properties and companies that are part of the trump organization family business, which ultimately will benefit the president. since his inauguration, until july 2019, president trump has spent 99 days here. for many, this 20-acre estate with its lavish decor and nearly 500 paying members is a symbol of the potential conflicts of interest that plague the trump presidency. and that is why we are here. this is a place where it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to be a member. and the price went up after he was leaked president. >> it's funny to think about, this is kind of donald trump's backyard in florida. >> we want to know if and how donald trump is actually profiting off of being president of the united states. mar-a-lago is just one example. the trump family business has dozens of properties across the

u.s. and around the world. office towers, golf courses, and hotels. they all pose potentially serious conflicts of interest, partially because they involve members or tenants indirectly paying the president of the united states. are they getting benefits? actual access to not just the president but the presidency? it's a nightmare for anybody who wants to know the truth between whether donald trump is acting for you and me, or if he's acting for himself and the trump organization. it is one big giant swamp. >> drain the swamp, drain the swamp, drain the swamp, train the swamp! >> just three weeks before the election, donald trump started using a line in his speeches that never failed to rally the crowd. >> we're going to win today, and

we're going to washington, d.c., to drain the swamp. >> drain the swamp! >> katy and i are teaming up to find out what the swamp really is and whether donald trump is draining it or making it worse. we'll look into this question in florida and beyond. but we're starting our journey in new york city, the anchor of donald trump's real estate empire. >> oh, yeah. >> this your first time on a double decker? >> an open one in new york, yeah. >> i've never been on one either. but we figured it was a pretty efficient way to check out donald trump's manhattan real estate. >> this trump park? >> trump park. >> it's actually pretty nice looking. this is the crown jewel of the donald trump empire. >> this is where he made his mark. >> trump tower is the home base for donald trump and his sprawling real estate portfolio. this iconic building has served both as the setting of his

popular reality show that aired on nbc, "the apprentice" -- >> you're fired. >> i am officially running -- >> and as the launch pad for the most inprobable presidential campaign to ever succeed. i mean, it does make you feel something when you drive by. look at all the different windows. who's paying what money to where inside that building? this is trump international? >> yep, hotel and tower. so there are apartments here. but it is also a hotel. >> i've never heard of one person that stayed in that hotel. >> saudis have stayed there. and not just any saudis. according to a letter obtained by nbc news, officials traveling with crown prince mohammad bin salman stayed at the trump international for five days following a white house visit in march 2018. it was a letter by the general manager saying the saudis have helped us with our bottom line. >> and how is that not a conflict? >> but just because you might see the trump name on a building

doesn't mean donald trump owns it. >> so every single one of these had the trump name on it -- >> almost every one, almost every one. yeah he didn't build them. >> for a while the trump name was a decent part of his business. today, not so much. they're taking his name down from these buildings one by one because the people inside the buildings, the condo boards, are petitioning and saying -- >> they don't want his name on it. >> we don't want his name. >> was this a trump building? >> not anymore. >> not anymore? thank god for that? there you go. >> that's what he said, that's not what you said. >> donald trump's brand is suffering in liberal manhattan, but also beyond. the president's most current financial disclosure statement shows that revenues from some of his prized properties took a hit. case in point, a 10% revenue drop at mar-a-lago. >> he might have avoided some of

those losses if he had divested. but he went out of his way not to. >> we should note his financial disclosure reports indicate that technically the owner of all his companies is an entity called the donald j. trump revocable trust. but his attorneys have acknowledged that quote the president is the beneficiary of the trust. >> i'm back at 30 rock to talk about this with tim o'brien. in 2005, he wrote a biography saying mr. trump was worth less than $1 billion. donald trump sued for defamation, but a judge dismissed the case. now tim and i are looking at the moment just before he became president. so we have donald trump's press conference from january. >> i have now watched it recently. >> let's play it. held just nine days before donald trump took office, the press conference addressed several issues. including how he planned to separate the business of trump

from the business of being president trump. >> i'm going to bring up sherry dillon and she's going to go -- these papers are just some of the many documents that i've signed turning over complete and total control. >> president-elect trump directed me and my colleagues to design a structure that would completely isolate him from the management of the company. >> it was simple. donald trump would hand over control of the family business to his two eldest sons. >> this is a carnival show. they've set up a stage with folders that they're not opening that purport to contain disclosures about all of his assets. >> we have no clue what was in those folders. were they blank pages? were they takeout menus? were they his taxes? but we do know that donald trump saw handing over management to his sons as a voluntary decision. >> i have no conflict of

interest provision as president, so i could actually run my business. i could actually run my business and run government at the same time. >> he's talking about the federal law, 18 usc 208, that prohibits government employees from working on anything related to their financial interests. that law excludes the president and vice president. so technically donald trump is right. but past presidents have always behaved as if the law did apply to them. precisely to avoid questions about where their interests lie. nelson rockefeller, who was wealthier than donald trump, released seven years of tax returns and sat for days of testimony on capitol hill, all to be gerald ford's vice president. >> we're all concerned with the question of whether it is dangerous, too dangerous, to have a person of great personal

wealth potentially in the line of succession to the power of the presidency. >> reporter: in comparison, president-elect trump merely promised no new foreign deals. he has not die vested, and he has disclosed just what the law requires. and so the public is left asking questions. >> is donald trump making tax policy because tax policy is good? or is he making tax policy because there's loopholes in there for real estate developers like him that helps their wallet? >> as we try to make sense of all of that, katy and i decide to take a closer look at trump tower. >> here's a directory. >> so even if you wanted to figure out who lives here, who works here, this is it? this is the directory? >> yeah. this is just six things. >> trump store. ground level. trump cafe, ground level. trump grill, ground level. i will say, if you're thirsty for a coffee, it's easy to figure out where starbucks is,

level two. >> it includes five floors of retail. unless you spent a very long time in the lobby or wade through a mountain of public records to compile a list of tenants, it's not easy finding out who takes the elevators to the office floors and 39 stories of luxury condos above. that's always been the case, even before he was president. >> they're not being transparent about who's doing business here. >> donald trump's potential conflicts of interest begin with his clients and tenants. dan alexander and the team at "forbes" have been piecing that information together. >> it's a business with a lot of tentacles, and everywhere you look you find conflicts. >> how do you do it? at the heart of it, how do you figure out if donald trump has conflicts of interest that strike at the heart of american democracy? >> donald trump has to list, hey, i own this skyscraper. but he doesn't have to say anything about how the actual business works.

and so what we get to do is say, okay, let's go over to that skyscraper, let's figure out who's inside the building, then let's call up all those companies, let's figure out how much they're paying. >> what their secretary footage is? >> what their square footage is. boot over boot measure one end to the other end. >> did you think when you were going to start looking into trump's conflicts you would basically going to be -- >> a vagabond wandering around his properties? no, i did not imagine. it's absurd but this is the way you have to figure out who's paying the president of the united states. >> dan and his colleagues use their findings, along with bank records and market rates, to reconstruct the rent rules for donald trump's biggest properties. >> we counted up more than 80 tenants, and of those, 36 of them had very clear ties with the federal government. whether it was that they were contractors or that they were under investigation by the federal government. so right there that's three dozen, okay? that's just the tenants. >> according to "forbes" and

"bloomberg," one trump tower tenant in particular, china. that country's industrial and commercial bank, icbc, has long rented the entire 20th floor and parts of two others. >> the chinese government, through a chinese government-controlled bank, is paying the president of the united states about $2 million a year. that's never happened before. >> donald trump has made no effort to disclose his leases with china and other foreign nations. which makes it hard for the public to even evaluate which foreign governments could be attempting to curry favor. the vast majority of those tenants precede his election, but his organization also owns properties where visits by donald trump himself seem to be the draw. but who exactly is getting access? west palm beach, florida. flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances.

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the best way to enjoy the florida coast is on the water. but we're not exactly here for a joyride. >> we can go fast here if you guys don't want, it will get us here quicker. >> yeah, love it. >> take it away. >> we're headed to mar-a-lago. sort of. >> it's quiet. it's big. it looks really expensive. and it also looks like i have no chance of getting in there whatsoever. >> we asked the club for a tour,

but we didn't hear back. but you do get pretty close showing up on a boat. >> white awning with a black suv under it under that giant american flag. >> the white awning connects the grand ballroom, which donald trump had added to this property which is covered in marble and gold. >> that's on that side? >> yeah. that's where he has weddings, that's where they hold charity events, that's where a lot of the money is made. the new year's party, the famous new year's party. >> yeah. >> mar-a-lago was built in the 1920s. at one point she had hoped to donate the building to the federal government as a winter white house. but the government balked at the maintenance costs. donald trump bought the property in 1985 and 10 years later turned it into a private club. in the end, mar-a-lago has fulfilled post's vision, almost. >> many of the world's great leaders request to come to mar-a-lago and palm beach. they like it, i like it, we're comfortable now.

it is indeed the southern white house. >> except for the fact that it's now a private for-profit club. since donald trump took office, it's become more and more a venue for groups whose views align with the president. it's also become a potential security risk. in march 2019, a chinese national was charged with trespassing and with lying to federal agents. which raises the question, has there been anyone else who hasn't been caught? members, of course, pay huge sums to be a part of this exclusive club. but what does that buy them? now that donald trump is president of the united states? i want to ask an actual member, so i'm starting with jeff green. he is a democrat and billionaire who ran for governor of florida in 2018. he also does some business with the club, housing some of their seasonal workers in one of his apartment complexes. and part of that arrangement

covers green's annual dues. >> you're right on the beach. this is a spectacular estate. why do you need to be part of a club like mar-a-lago? >> my wife and i were new back in town here. we wanted to be part of the community. we had some friends who belonged so we joined the club. >> what is it like to be a member of mar-a-lago? >> as a host he's always been a very good host. that's the side of donald trump i always knew. >> all i can tell you is we're going to do a good job, okay? we're going to do a good job. >> donald trump's hospitality does not come cheap. >> make america great again! >> after the election, mar-a-lago doubled its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. so is that what it costs to rub shoulders with the president of the united states? according to fellow billionaire jeff green, we're asking the wrong question. >> what i'm most worried is, are his policies going to really damage our country, our world?

not whether or not he has an extra few million dollars in revenue from mar-a-lago. >> do you think there's a difference between political fund-raisers for any other politician and the way that mar-a-lago is working? >> the idea that it's some kind of a pay for plaything where you join the club and you get to hang out with the president, that's kind of silly. that's not happening. >> are you sure? that's what people, when they look into it, they think to themselves, god, it does, that's what it feels like. >> look, i live in palm beach and we have a lot of close friends in common. i have no direct access to the president. even before i ran for governor as a democrat, i never had direct access to the president. i think if somebody was already his friend and they have dinner with him at mar-a-lago, they have access, but they would have anyway. >> here's the thing. this doesn't quite mesh with what green said in his gubernatorial campaign. in 2018 he touted his membership at mar-a-lago as a means to confront the president. something he explained during an interview with local newspaper editors. >> we didn't give up our

membership because i felt it would be a chance to go out and really address this president on how i felt, and i've been able to do it. >> green doesn't see this as a contradiction. as a neighbor and fellow multibillion fair, he considers himself donald trump's peer rather than just a member of his club. local reporter christine stapleton gave me another perspective. she's written stories about mar-a-lago for more than 25 years. >> i think it's really important for us to know who is going in and out of mar-a-lago and who the members are, because of the proximity to power you have if you are a member of mar-a-lago. >> is anyone else getting any political benefit of being a member of mar-a-lago? >> yes, we've identified four members of mar-a-lago who have been tapped for diplomatic positions.

>> hola, amigos. i'm robin bernstein, the new ambassador to the dominican republic. >> bernstein is a founding member of mar-a-lago and a campaign donor. she was also donald trump's long-time insurance agent. and according to stapleton -- >> he asked two other members to be ambassadors, and they turned him down for personal or health reasons. and then we have a fourth one, her name is lana marks. she's a couture handbag designer. >> president trump nominated marks as ambassador to her native south africa. presidents rewarding their supporters with jobs is nothing new. it goes back as far as the founding fathers. but donald trump promised ethics reform, then proceeded to nominate campaign donors to ambassadorships. and nominating mar-a-lago members takes it one step further. that isn't just rewarding people who put money into donald trump's campaign, it's actively rewarding people who are putting money into donald trump's

pocket. >> i mean, if i ever had the chance to talk to the president of the united states, i certainly would ask him why he has tapped these mar-a-lago members for these types of positions. >> there's one more thing you should know about mar-a-lago and the ways president trump may be profiting off the presidency. when secret service agents and other officials stay at mar-a-lago, the president's company bills the government for their rooms and expenses. in other words, the trump organization bills the american taxpayer. according to the u.s. government accountability office, for his first four trips to mar-a-lago as president, americans paid the club and therefore the president $60,000 for housing the core group of secret service and defense department staff who stay on site. since then, president trump has visited mar-a-lago dozens of times. but the white house and other government agencies have not fully disclosed these costs.

>> mar-a-lago is a unique and interesting piece of donald trump's real estate empire, but the property that seems to be brewing the most controversy is one much closer to the white house. we're headed to washington, d.c. so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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i just got another person at d.h.s. to confirm this. i have this number. we're going to publish the story. i have this number. the first survivor of alzis out there.ase and the alzheimer's association is going to make it happen. but we won't get there without you. join the fight with the alzheimer's association. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, hmm. exactly. so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ note note drain the swamp, drain the swamp! washington, d.c. is the seat of our government and it happens

to also be the location of one of donald trump's newest properties. just a few blocks from the white house. the trump international hotel opened just two weeks before election day in the capital's old post office. following a renovation estimated to cost $200 million. the trump organization is now six years into a 60-year lease of the building from the federal government. >> with the notable exception of 1600 pennsylvania avenue, this is the most coveted piece of real estate in washington, d.c. >> i've been here multiple times. >> it's almost hard to believe that it isn't explicitly illegal for foreign governments or foreign entities to stay here. >> i think that's the question. >> even us. like the idea that we, as people who cover him, could sit here and pay for coffee, or potato

chips, that ultimately the money goes into his pockets. there are just so many issues. why would you want to put yourself in that position? >> it's incredible to give money to the president of the united states in this way. it's not a campaign donation. this is a donation to his wallet. nbc news analyzed federal elections commissions data and found that political groups spent more than $win.9 million at the hotel since the start of 2017. and since the first year of the trump presidency, the hotel charged the secret service close to $200,000 in taxpayer money, according to agency expense documents obtained by nbc news under the freedom of information act. the hotel's success could be a legal issue for the president. it all depends on an obscure word found in the first and second articles of the constitution, emolument, meaning

salary or benefit, depending on which dictionary you use. the constitution bans a president receiving emoluments from foreign or domestic governments. >> is he in? great. >> constitutional law scholar john mac kyle explains why. >> nice to meet you. >> it's nice to meet you, welcome. >> we know what an emolument is, but there's discussion about what exactly it is. it's a weird word. >> it's a very unusual word. we're talking about whether the presidency can be turned into a cash register for donald trump. that's ultimately what we're talking about. the world emolument appears three times in the constitution. this is the foreign emoluments clause. you can see it's very elaborately written but the word "any" appears four times. indicating that the founders really wanted to be sweeping and all-encompassing. >> jacob, how are you? >> this is karl racine, the attorney general of washington, d.c., a democrat who, along with

the attorney general of maryland, democrat brian frosh, filed one of three emoluments lawsuits against donald trump. >> there was a nonstop flow, certainly after president trump became elected, of foreign sovereign officials taking up at the trump hotel. >> donald trump and his attorneys say the emoluments clause doesn't apply to his hotels, but just in case, they say they're donating all profits from foreign governments to the treasury. for the last two years, the trump organization announced two donations totaling $343,000. they didn't provide any backup or breakdown for their annual donations, although earlier they had submitted a pamphlet to congress document hog would count as a foreign government entity and how they'd calculate those profits. >> it has to be clear that the president, during his presidency, is not receiving any monies from those properties that come from either foreign or domestic sources. >> not one dime? >> not one dime.

>> in 2018, the u.s. district court in maryland ruled racine and frosh's lawsuit could proceed. but in july 2019, a panel of three judges, appointed by republican presidents in the fourth circuit court of appeals, ordered that the case be dismissed. they found that maryland's and d.c.'s ags didn't have standing to bring the lawsuit, and also found that the link between government officials' patronage of the hotel and the hotel's payments to the president himself was simply too attenuated or weak. the president won this round, but keep in mind there are two other separate emoluments lawsuits, from a citizens action group, and one from house democra democrats. they're also still in the courts. that means the stage is still set to figure out whether donald trump really did violate the oath he took on day one of his presidency. >> -- preserve, protect, and

defend the constitution of the united states. so help me god. >> emoluments high mightn an old and pretty clunky word, but the founders wanted to make sure the president was acting for the people and not himself. while katy and i are near the white house, marine one happens to be taking off with the president on board. >> what do you think he's thinking about right now? as donald trump is taking off from the white house? here he goes. >> i wonder when he takes of does he take a look at the hotel? does he wonder what the occupancy is? how many people are there, how much money am i making today? >> hopefully he's instead focused on our nation's interests, both at home and abroad. but percent any conflict between his duty and his business ties, the stakes could be much higher than just ethics concerns.

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i'm richard lui. the bahamas takes the brunt of hurricane dorian's power at this hour, hitting the island chain with 185-mile-an-hour winds. there are reports of homes severely damaged, trees toppled, and floodwaters filling the streets. dorian moves at a dangerously slow pace right now, increasing the suffering for those in the bahamas. the hurricane will lessen in strength as it gets closer to the u.s. coastline as the week progresses but will still an very dangerous storm throughout parts of florida, georgia, and the carolinas.

mandatory evacuations in effect for some of those areas. we have some new information on the deadly shooting rampage in west texas. the gunman has now been identified, but no motive for the shooting has been revealed as of yet. it started at a traffic stop, including the hijacking of a postal truck and the random shooting of bystanders. in the end seven vehicictims we killed, 22 people injured. drain the swamp, drain the swamp! >> surprising as it sounds, whether donald trump is trying to profit president presidency might not be the most troubling question we have about his possible conflicts of interest. how they could impact our relations around the world, even our national security, is a far graver concern. since donald trump's candidacy, there have been questions about whether he has business ties with russia. he maintained throughout the

presidential campaign that despite all of the speculation, he had no deals there. >> i don't deal there, i have no businesses there, i have no loans from russia. >> initially michael cohen, the president's former fixer and lawyer, backed up that assess. but he later changed his testimony, swearing under oath that he was pursuing a moscow deal on behalf of donald trump during the 2016 campaign. >> mr. trump knew of and directed the trump moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. >> but there's another complex real estate deal involving the trump extended family you might not know about. one that has a brief mention in the mueller report. in 2007, two years before jared and ivanka were married, this building, 666 fifth avenue, was bought by jared kushner's family. during the 2016 campaign and after the election, when jared became a senior adviser to the

president, the kushner company was seeking financing to pay off the $1.2 billion mortgage. >> you've never been up here? >> i've never been up here. it's quite the view. >> we're starting to piece all of this together at the very top of 30 rock with bloomberg reporter caleb elby, who tracks the empire of donald trump and his entire family. >> that's the kushners' building right down there, shorter than some of the others. what's the deal with 666 fifth avenue? >> this was the kushner's family's big bet in 2007. they paid a record-setting $1.8 billion for this building. >> in 2008, things fell apart. >> yeah. it basically sparked a decade of rolling problems for the family where they were constantly trying to figure out how to handle this massive debt that they had acquired. charlie kushner, jared's father, had an idea to knock down this building and build another in

its place. it was a deal so expensive and such a moonshot that most u.s.-based investors just considered it a nonstarter. they had to take that plan to someplace where they wouldn't be laughed out of the room. >> i pledge to every citizen of our land that i will be president for all americans. >> after the election, jared kushner became a senior adviser to the president. he sold his share of 666 to his family and put part of his financial portfolio in a blind trust run by his mother. in 2018, kushner's attorney, abbe lowell, told msnbc that his client was no longer part of any decisions about the property. >> before he entered government, the 666 fifth avenue was an asset that he completely divested himself in. >> frank fig losezy is a former assistant director for 4 intelligence at the fbi and an nbc news national security

contributor. >> what is the difference between having a blind trust or divesting and going to an outside party, versus going back to your family? >> a true divestiture, a truly blind trust, is when decisions are being made without your input. so if you've done this with your mom, it's likely that over a holiday dinner some things are being discussed, some signals are being given. >> as the mortgage deadline for 666 loomed, the kushner company continued to pursue financing. it turned to qatar, a small wealthy oil nation in the persian gulf. it's a point of concern because part of jared kushner's duties at the white house include advising the president on middle east foreign policy. >> what's the message that is being sent to these foreign countries, to have someone like kushner in the white house and dealing with middle east, deal wigts a very sensitive foreign policy arena? >> if this comes down to

business interests over national security interests and we can't tell the difference, neither can these other countries. and they will find that window and that gap, and they'll try to exploit it. >> in april 2017, the kushner company had talks with the former prime minister of qatar, the richest man in the country. but no agreement was reached. in an interview with a new york real estate publication, charlie kushner said the company also met with the qatar investment authority which invests money for the government of qatar, but no deal was struck there either. >> the whole issue of 666 fifth avenue and seeking foreign assistance and funding for that building and that debt troubles me greatly. >> troubling because, while business deals were being negotiated, the delicate work of american diplomacy in the middle east was and still is never far from a crisis. and just weeks later, a crisis

is exactly what erupted. >> we certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences. hmm. exactly.

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>> while donald trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, handled his 2017 white house duties, which did include a middle east portfolio, his family was actively seeking refinancing on a more than $1 billion loan for their manhattan skyscraper 666 fifth avenue from the wealthy gulf state nation of qatar. that deal didn't happen, but then in june of 2017, qatar was suddenly in the news. >> diplomatic crisis erupting in the middle east. five nations cutting ties with qatar, accusing that country of supporting terror. >> a regional feud between qatar and its gulf state neighbors reached a boiling point. qatar's neighbors had formed a

blockade around the country and were threatening to invade. there was a very real possibility that the saudis and emirates were going to invade qatar and try to institute a military coup to overthrow the monarchy -- >> courtney kube was in the region a few months after the blockade started. where are you? >> bahrain now. the u.s. has the largest air base in the area and it's sitting right there in qatar. >> that would be a huge deal for the united states, to have an invasion of qatar when we have a massive military site there. >> it could have very serious implications for the u.s. military and their operations here. >> within hours of the crisis, then-secretary of state rex tillerson tried to de-escalate the standoff between these u.s. allies. >> we certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences. >> tillerson's effort was

undercut by president trump, who made it clear that he was siding with the saudis over the qatari government. >> the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism. >> qatar denied being a supporter of terrorism, while the kushner company qatari connection wasn't public yet, according to a house oversight committee report, it did not go unnoticed that jared kushner had developed a close working relationship with members of the saudi royal family. it was also reported that one of the administration's advocates for president trump's anti-qatar policy was senior adviser jared kushner. and while there have been ongoing tensions between the u.s. and qatar over alleged funding of terrorism, the administration's sudden change in strategy led to an uncomfortable question. was it over a legitimate foreign policy position? or did the unsuccessful

negotiations for 666 have anything to do with the anti-qatar stance? >> there are questions about 666 fifth avenue and the funding and the blockade and the timing. but that's about it. is it maybe going too far to make that connection, to make that jump? >> it's really important that we stick to the facts we know and not to engage in conjecture that actually draws conclusions that we don't have data to support. >> questions surrounding jared kushner's potential conflicts of interest have been an issue since he joined the administration. and was denied top secret security clearance. that decision by intelligence officials was eventually overruled by the trump administration. part of the reason that it was denied, according to the information that we have so far, is that it was potentially because of his foreign interests and foreign dealings with his real estate business, at least before he came into the white house. do you think 666 fifth avenue could have had something to do

with that? >> i don't think there's any question that the foreign business interests and questions around who he's talking to and why he's talking to them have entered into why there was a lack of recommendation for jared to get a clearance. and the fact that it was overridden, the fact that career professionals had that decision taken from them and were overridden, should concern all of us. >> but this isn't donald trump's business that's the conflict any longer, this is one of his advisers. it's kushner's family business. why is that a problem for the president? >> well, for me as a counterintelligence professional, it's about access to the president. and it doesn't get much closer than the son-in-law of the president. >> in the weeks and months that followed the president's siding against qatar, relations between the u.s. and qatar began to mend. the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding on fighting terrorism. but the blockade continues to this day. the kushner company did eventually get financing for 666 through brookfield asset

management, a canadian investment company. while the qatar investment authority acknowledged it has a small stake in the fund that brookfield invested in the building, its spokesman told nbc news in a statement that it had. it said it had no direct involvement in the 666 deal and the fund vested without our knowledge. >> what is the problem with the appearance of a conflict? >> we slid from appearances and optics that matter and we have to conduct ourselves at the highest level with the most moral and ethical conduct down to, well, if it's not breaking a law, it's fine. >> so who's doing anything about all these potential conflicts? for the first two years of donald trump's presidency, a republican led congress offered no oversight but that is not the

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president trump's potential conflicts went virtually unchecked his first two years in office while republicans controlled both chambers of congress. that changed in 2019. >> nancy pelosi, i extend to you this gavel. >> with the house back in democratic control, katy and i went to see representative elijah cummings. just recently he was the target of one of the president's twitter tirades. when we met he was about to take over as chairman of the powerful oversight committee. >> how high on the lists is the

emoluments and the d.c. hotel? >> very much. we will look at the emoluments and d.c. hotel. >> the votes were still being counted when the president began to push back on investigations. >> are you offering a my way or the highway to the democrats. if they start investigating you, you can play that game and investigate them? >> better than you. if they do that, this is a war-like posture. >> the president is trying to fight back calling it presidential harassment. >> i don't try to stop the president from doing his job. my job, as a member of the congress, is to be a check on the executive branch. you can call it whatever you want. it's me doing my job. this is america. >> how do you convince people the job you're doing subpoenaing various members of his organization and his orbit, by

doing that you are helping the american public. >> at some point we have to make the moral argument, and we have to make that argument for what makes to help people understand they have a vested interest in making sure we have a president and legislature that is accountable. somebody asked me the other day, are you happy to have this position? are you happy to be the chairman? i said, absolutely not. i said, i'm not because it is a phenomenal, i deal with the burden but it's a burden i'm willing to bare. >> as democrats pursued lawsuits, investigations and hearings into the president's potential business conflicts, what do gop lawmakers think? we asked peter king. >> when is it appropriate to investigate a president?

>> any grounds he violated his oath of office? >> what about conflicts of interest? >> you have to have severe conflicts of interest. >> can i give an example? >> sure. >> the president went to normandy to celebrate d-day and went to his private golf course in ireland for what reason? >> that's no conflict of interest. he enjoys playing golf and visited. >> it's not a conflict? >> you guys are pushing things as far as you can, absolutely not. people knew who he was when they elected him. >> who's you guys? >> the media. >> really? >> a vocal trump defender wanted to discuss a number of things but not president trump's business dealings. >> are you concerned with the president profiting from money from foreign governments, at his hotels and other places the president owns? >> i'm concerned from this unprecedented attack from the

key chairman of the house on an individual, this unprecedented attack on the president of the united states. >> you're going at it -- i'm talking about when he goes to his properties and brings the press along with him. >> and i'm talking about the 3.2% economic growth rate. >> if the president's profiting off the presidency. >> ethics questions continue to pile up for the trump administration. >> the house intelligence committee launched its own probe whether foreign governments have control over donald trump and his associates. >> in march, the house judiciary committee launched a sweeping investigation into donald trump's corruption of justice and abuse of power. their many document requests include russia, emirates and qatar. the house sued the treasury

department and irs in 2019, demanding the president's tax returns. house committees then issued dozens of subpoenas from information from the trump's corporate tax returns to information about the financial trusts and their wrangling over the emoluments question goes on. >> in the course of the investigation, we reached out to both the trump organization and kushner companies. they never responded to our requests and the white house declined to speak us to on the record. is donald trump fleecing the country? congress and the courts will come up with some answers, but ultimately, it is americans who will decide if it is acceptable to profit from the presidency. >> regardless of what you think of donald trump's policies, it's his motivations we're questioning. the only reason we have to in the first place is because they're as murky as the swamp he's claiming to drain.

next time on "american swamp." >> i never thought at election school one day i'd be talking about the world's greatest democracy, vietnam. low voter turnout, voter suppression tactics and accusations of election fraud. >> is america's election system rigged? >> i'm nbc news meteorologist, bill karins, news from the national hurricane system. dorian has peaked in intensity during the day with 185 miles an hour winds, down a smidge, 180 miles an hour winds still extremely catastrophic with one of the strongest storms you will

ever see and