Billionaire investor Carl Icahn announced Friday that he was stepping down as special adviser to President Trump, saying he didn’t want “partisan bickering” over his role to cloud the Trump administration.
Icahn announced his stepping down in a letter on his website. He named his role as “special advisor to the President on issues relating to regulatory reform,” although he later noted he never had a formal role within the administration.
He noted that the recent appointment of Neomi Rao as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs raised questions about the overlap between her position and Icahn’s — although he said the answer to that question was “no.”
He also responded to partisan concerns about his position by saying that “contrary to the insinuations of a handful of your Democratic critics, I never had access to nonpublic information or profited from my position, nor do I believe that my role presented conflicts of interest.”
Nevertheless, I chose to end this arrangement (with your blessing) because I did not want partisan bickering about my role to in any way cloud your administration or Ms. Rao’s important work. While I do not know Ms. Rao and played no part in her appointment, I am confident based on what I’ve read of her accomplishments that she is the right person for this important job.
The New York Times reports that Icahn Enterprises owns a stake in an oil refinery business and that several Democratic senators demanded that Icahn step away from his advisory role because of the potential conflict of interest.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY