Trump's company taps ex-Bannon lawyer as outside ethics advisor

By David Thomas

Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's company said Friday it has retained William Burck, a managing partner of U.S. trial firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and longtime Republican insider, as its outside ethics advisor.

Burck will help the Trump Organization develop and maintain internal ethics policies to ward against conflicts of interest, the company said in a press release posted on X by Trump's son Eric, who is an executive vice president of the company.

The Trump Organization consists of hundreds of companies that are ultimately owned by the Republican president-elect, including his golf and resort business. Reuters has estimated the company was on track to generate over $600 million in revenue last year.

"The Trump Organization is dedicated to not just meeting but vastly exceeding its legal and ethical obligations during my father's presidency," Eric Trump said in Friday's release.

Donald Trump retained ownership of the company when he first took office in 2017, but he placed control in the hands of his sons Eric and Donald Jr., breaking with U.S. precedent by not divesting his businesses or putting them into a blind trust.

This raised conflict of interest concerns, and Democratic congressional investigators later found that businesses tied to Trump received at least $7.8 million in foreign payments from 20 countries during his four years in the White House.

Eric Trump told Reuters last month there will be a "very large wall" separating the Trump Organization's business activity from the U.S. government.

Burck said in an email that the Trump Organization assignment would have no effect on his role at Quinn Emanuel. The 1,000-lawyer firm's other clients include billionaire Tesla CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk.

Burck previously defended Trump's former political strategist Steve Bannon on charges of defrauding donors in a border-wall scheme, which were dismissed when Bannon was pardoned by Trump. Burck also represented Bannon before a U.S. Senate committee investigating the Trump campaign's links to Russia, and he represented ex-Trump officials including U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former White House Counsel Don McGahn.

Earlier Burck was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan and served as deputy White House counsel in the George W. Bush administration.

China-based drone maker DJI last month hired Quinn Emanuel in a lawsuit challenging DJI's inclusion on a U.S. Defense Department list of entities allegedly working with Beijing's military.

Asked if Quinn Emanuel's work for DJI could raise conflict concerns when the incoming Trump administration inherits responsibility to defend against the case, Burck said the firm is "governed by bar ethics and conflicts rules and will abide by them as we always do."

(Reporting by David Thomas)

((D.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))