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The plan does not comport with the tradition of our presidents over the last 40 years," Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub said. | AP Photo Federal ethics czar delivers broadside against Trump conflicts plan

The top ethics policy official in the federal government is savaging President-elect Donald Trump's plan to address conflicts of interests involving his business holdings, calling the arrangement "meaningless from a conflicts of interest perspective."

Trump announced Wednesday that he was setting up a trust to hold his businesses and turning over management of the firms to his sons, who would not be permitted to discuss the businesses with him.

During an extraordinary response Wednesday, Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub referred to a POLITICO report last month that Trump aides' were mulling a "half-blind" trust to hold assets belonging to Trump or his advisers.

"The idea of setting up a trust to run his operating businesses adds nothing to the equation," Shaub said in remarks at the Brookings Institution. "This is not a blind trust. It’s not even close. I think POLITICO called this a ‘half-blind’ trust, but it’s not even halfway blind. The only thing it has in common with a blind trust is the label: trust."

"The plan does not comport with the tradition of our presidents over the last 40 years," Shaub added.

More on Trump's announcement and reaction is here.