Clarify blind trusts

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 9/23/7

In his financial disclosure, Barbour reports only that his income besides his gubernatorial salary comes from a blind trust- without any further specificity.

The basic idea of a blind trust is that the public official doesn’t know what’s in it, and that by having his assets managed by an independent trustee, he avoids conflicts of interest because he doesn’t know what his interests are. The questions about Barbour’s blind trust revolve around whether Barbour retains an ownership stake in the Washington lobbying firm he founded but has said he officially left when he became governor.