[Cuomo:] All right. Donald Trump has a lot of businesses in and a lot of different countries. That raises concerns about potential conflicts of interest between those dealings and his duties as president. Trump and his transition team says no laws are being broken. That's probably true because there are like no laws that apply here. This is about ethical standards. And as our new CNN poll shows, 59 percent of Americans do not think Trump is doing enough to prevent conflicts of interest as president. Let's discuss with CNN's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin. Always a pleasure, my brother. Now, a little bit of irony in here, he was crushing Clinton during the campaign about perceived conflicts of interest, and now we are dealing with a situation where we don't even know what we don't know. He has disclosed almost nothing about conflicts. How does this size up legally, ethically?
[Jeffrey Toobin, Cnn Senior Legal Analyst:] Well, I think it is, at this point, much more of a political issue than a legal issue, because, you said, every president in modern American history has put their assets in what's called a blind trust so that they don't even know what their assets are so they can't, you know, act to favor them. That's a tradition. It is not a law. There is no law requiring presidents to put an asset in a trust.
[Cuomo:] It's also very traditionally easy, because we're talking about securities usually. They put them in a trust, they put them in a legal vehicle, so whoever is investing them does it on their own and you don't know. That's not his scenario. I don't know that a blind trust would work.
[Toobin:] Well, the only way it would work is if you simply sold the whole company and then put the money in stocks or bonds, or something like that, which he said from the very beginning of the campaign, he was not going to do. But now that he's becoming president, the nature of the conflicts are becoming obvious. I mean, let's just talk about one thing. You know, he had a meeting with the prime minister of Japan. Ivanka is sitting right there. Ivanka is going to be one of the people managing the company.
[Cuomo:] The poll also shows overwhelmingly the majority of Americans do not think the kids should be having a hand in the business and in the government. They shouldn't even have the security clearances, which is debatable.
[Toobin:] But again, he promised that they were going to have a hand in the business and they were close advisers to him. So, his position is, look, I ran for president, openly saying this is what's going to happen. I won, so in effect, it's all grandfathered in. But now, it's becoming clear just how intertwined the business and the government are going to be.
[Cuomo:] The allegations that foreign representatives are staying at the Trump hotel in D.C. and that there's some kind of encouragement of that, that he met with some of his Indian partners as part of his transition meetings about what's going on abroad. What's your read on these in terms of obvious conflict?
[Toobin:] The hotel thing seems very minor to me. So what? You're talking about hotel rooms. The much bigger issue is, I think, what about his investments abroad? If he owes money, we think, to foreign banks, to sovereign funds, there you know, if you were negotiating with Russia and you owe Russia money, that's that is a position of real peril. It also goes back to the whole tax return issue. Because he never released his tax return, we don't know exactly.
[Cuomo:] And his guy said he will not change his answer going forward. Every year, as you may or may not know, presidents put our their taxes and they get reviewed by all of us. We look at what they have. He's not going to do it.
[Toobin:] Can I make a prediction? Those of us in the news business after this election shouldn't be making many predictions. We are never going to see those tax returns. Remember he said, it's going to be on when it's we are never going to see his tax returns.
[Cuomo:] Do you think anybody can compel Trump to make more of his business dealings public, even if only to some congressional committee so that they ca get some comfort about who the guy is doing business with? I mean, on one level, it is a little absurd that nobody knows who his business dealings are with. It's a little absurd for president of the United States. It never happened before.
[Toobin:] It is unprecedented, as you point out. But, I mean, remember, this is a political matter. You're talking about a House and Senate that are completely in Republican hands. They're partners with Donald Trump. You know, barring some sensational disclosure that we have not yet seen, what are the chances that the House Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which are partners with Donald Trump, are going to start insisting that he'd be more transparent. I mean, it just seems extremely unlikely to me. They're the only ones who remotely have the chance of doing it. The Democrats have no power to do it.
[Cuomo:] The irony that he got so much currency during the campaign for crushing Clinton about the foundation and the money making and perceptions of conflict of interest that were vetted in large part by the FBI. Nothing every came from it. And with this man, we know nothing about it.
[Toobin:] And, by the way, the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton, he has never repudiated the idea that he's going to continue to investigate and perhaps even prosecute Hillary Clinton.
[Cuomo:] Right. They're supposedly that's going away.
[Toobin:] Supposedly? Do you think Jeff Sessions is desperate
[Cuomo:] No, but there's word coming out of his transition it's not going to happen. You're right, we need official word. Let me ask you something while I have you here. Constitutional convention. You need two-thirds of the state legislatures to do it. You now have 32 of the state legislatures Republican. You need 34 to have two-thirds of 50. Do you think there's any chance that the Republicans get together from the state legislature base and have a constitutional convention, and if so, what could they change?
[Toobin:] Well, the second question is t. What could they change? They could change the whole Constitution. I think there is a lot to worry about and be concerned about in this country. A constitutional convention is not one of them.
[Cuomo:] Even though they're only two legislatures away?
[Toobin:] You know, there are legal questions about whether each of those calls is actually binding because they have happened over many years. When you look at the fact that we have not had a constitutional convention since the first one in the 18th century, I think leaving the Constitution as it is, is a widely popular position. If you want to amend it, there is an amendment process. There had been
[Cuomo:] That's hard because you have to go through Congress.
[Toobin:] That's true. I just don't think we're going to have a constitutional convention.
[Cuomo:] Only one convention
[Toobin:] But another prediction
[Cuomo:] Please?
[Toobin:] I could be wrong.
[Cuomo:] Only one convention, 27 different amendments. Jeffrey, thank you so much.
[Toobin:] Yes, sir. All righty now.
[Cuomo:] A lot of news coming out of transition committee, coming out of events around this country that we need to tell you about. Let's get to it.
[Trump:] I want the next generation and production and innovation to happen right here on our great homeland, America.