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NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump released his five-plan for government ethics reform, vowing to "drain the swamp in Washington, D.C." "That's why I'm proposing a package of ethics reforms to make our government honest once again," Trump added in a statement accompanying the plan Monday.
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The five tenets of the plan:
-- Re-instituting a ban on all executive branch members lobbying the government for five years after leaving service. "I am going to ask Congress to pass this ban into law so that it cannot be lifted by executive order," he said.
-- Placing a five-year ban on lobbying by former members of Congress and their staff.
-- Expanding the definition of lobbyists so "we close all the loopholes that former government officials use by labeling themselves consultants and advisors when we all know they are lobbyists."
-- Issuing a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials from lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
-- Asking Congress to pass campaign finance reform that bans registered lobbyists from foreign countries to raise money in U.S. elections.
"Not only will we end our government corruption, but we will end the economic stagnation," he said.
Earlier Monday in a speech in Green Bay, Wis., Trump accused officials at the FBI and State Department of engaging in a "criminal conspiracy." He noted FBI documents released Monday that revealed that at least two officials there allegedly bargained over reconsidering the classification of an email on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's private email server.
But Trump's proposals would not have prevented collusion between the two departments, both of which denied the allegations.
Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was a longtime Washington lobbyist who also worked as a consultant to further the interests of foreign governments, Russia, although he never officially registered as a foreign agent. Manafort resigned from the campaign in August.
