A gold bar and an exclusive Rolex: The Swiss showered Trump with expensive gifts and secured a tariff reduction.

At a recent meeting with Swiss executives at the White House, the head of Rolex presented President Trump with a gold-plated desk clock. The head of the precious metals company presented the president with an engraved gold bar, writes NPR.

These individuals did not represent the official economic agenda of the Swiss government. However, the following week, their country announced a trade deal that sharply reduced the US tariff on Swiss goods from 39% to 15%, bringing it in line with the European Union.

The question arises: is it acceptable for the US President to accept such gifts?

Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice has been hit by its own “gift” scandal, which is being written about The Daily Beast.

On the subject: How much will it cost to repair and refit the 'free' plane that Qatar gave Trump?

The Department's ethics adviser said he was fired because Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Cash Patel wanted to keep expensive gifts that violated ethics rules.

Joseph Terrell, former director of the Department of Justice's Office of Ethics, said he had to push Bondi employees to return a box of very expensive cigars given to him by mixed martial artist Conor McGregor.

"We received a request for cigars from Conor McGregor and a soccer ball from FIFA," said Terrell, who oversaw ethics at the Justice Department for seven years and previously spent eleven years at the FBI. "And I had to literally fight to convince the attorney general's office that the item could be paid for, returned, or thrown out. There were no other options."

McGregor, whom Donald Trump called "great" and his favorite Irishman, recently lost his appeal in a civil case in which he was found liable for sexual assault. The two-time UFC champion, who withdrew from the Irish presidential election in September, has reportedly landed a spot in a UFC match purportedly scheduled to take place at the White House in July. (UFC—Ultimate Fighting Championship—is the world's largest mixed martial arts (MMA) organization. UFC athletes use techniques from various martial arts, including boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and others.) Note.)

McGregor previously claimed that he was in direct negotiations not with the UFC, but with the White House, and that he wanted $100 million and 100 "golden visas" for participating.

"Federal employees are prohibited from accepting gifts from anyone because of their position," Terrell explained. "I briefed Ms. Bondi on the ethics rules, and we discussed the prohibition on accepting gifts from department employees. In most cases, supervisors are prohibited from accepting gifts from their subordinates, but this became a recurring problem in the Attorney General's office. They didn't want to return the gifts; they didn't want to refuse them."

The soccer ball was accepted in accordance with established procedures, and the cigars were destroyed after consultation with ethics officials, a Justice Department spokesman said.

Terrell said he later received a call from the FBI's top lawyer, who said Patel, who is currently under fire for his use of a private jet, believes he should be allowed to accept more expensive gifts.

"I reminded him that his client is not Patel, but the United States," Terrell noted.

Terrell, who was fired in July, is now one of three Justice Department employees suing Bondi and the U.S. government, claiming they were abruptly and unlawfully fired for their work on the January 6 case. The lawsuit, filed in July in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by Michael M. Gordon, Patricia A. Hartman, and Terrell, alleges their dismissals violated federal law, the Constitution, and safeguards designed to protect government employees from political pressure.

Terrell speculated that there may have been another reason for his firing: "I think they just didn't want the ethics office calling them and telling them what to do," he told the Times.

Patel came under fire after reports in October that he used a $60 million government jet to visit his 27-year-old girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkes, drew attention to his lavish lifestyle.

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Additionally, according to the New Yorker, in July, Bondi and her staff repeatedly attempted to challenge federal rules restricting gift acceptance.

"Every new administration needs time to get used to ethics rules, which may seem like small details," the source said. "But the amount of resistance we encountered was abnormal."

A Justice Department spokesperson previously stated: "When the Attorney General receives an item, Department employees consult with ethics officials as required and fully comply with their recommendations—this is neither new nor controversial."

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