PRESIDENT TRUMP BEING SUED BY A STATE AND THE D.C. REGION

…This was the last time Trump was sued….and he paid $25 million to settle that suit

 

The lawsuit says that Trump’s staying with his business has undermined the integrity of the US political system.

 

I guess it was just a matter of time that someone like the Attorneys General for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland are now suing President Trump.  These two regions are alleging that the president has been operating against the anti-corruption clauses of the US Constitution.  He is doing this by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments that pay large amounts of money to stay and use the facilities at the many Trump luxury hotels and golf courses within the Trump family holdings.

 

As some examples of all of this, The Atlantic has reported that the nation of Saudi Arabia has spent over $270K just at the new Trump International Hotel in DC, since it opened last year.  That large amount of money was only for lodging and catering.  It also costs the US taxpayers ~$3 million every time the president makes a trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and much of that fee goes directly to the Trump organization for Secret Service lodging, meals and conference rooms.  The initiation fee to become a Mar-a-Logo member has doubled to $200K since Trump became president and The Atlantic has listed 13 other examples of where money is now pouring into Trump Inc.

 

All of the Trump hotel and golf organizations have hired staff and have been holding events to cater to foreign diplomats.  It all started when the Embassy of Kuwait held an event at the Trump DC hotel by switching its initial booking from the DC Four Seasons to the Trump hotel.  Then Saudi Arabia, the destination of Trump’s first trip abroad, also booked rooms at the DC hotel on more than one occasion since Trump’s inauguration. Turkey has held a state-sponsored event there, and in April, the ambassador of the country of Georgia stayed at the hotel and then tweeted his compliments. Trump himself has appeared at the hotel and greeted guests repeatedly since becoming president.

These suits are all happening for a number of reasons:

 

·       First, Donald Trump is by far the wealthiest individual to ever hold the office of the US presidency.

 

·       Donald Trump is the first president to continue to be associated with his multiple business ventures while still acting as the US president.

 

·       Trump had said that if his businesses were to make profits due to other nations taking advantage of him owning these facilities, he would have that money donated to the US Treasury.  Unfortunately, there is no way to track that money and it would be against the law to even attempt to donate to the Treasury, so that issue is being ignored by the Trump operation.

This is a first-of-its-kind lawsuit to be brought on by any government entities, but it’s not the first lawsuits.  The suit centers on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his companies when he became president. Trump has previously said that he was shifting his business assets into a trust managed by his sons to eliminate potential conflicts of interests.  But the DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine (Dem) and Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (Dem) say that Trump has broken many promises for keeping separate his public duties and private business interests.

 

For one example, his sown on Eric Trump has said the president would continue to receive regular updates about his company’s financial health.  This is totally against the rules for using a Trust to manage your business.

 

A signed copy of the lawsuit was provided to The Washington Post and it alleges “unprecedented constitutional violations” by Donald Trump. The suit says Trump’s continued ownership of a global business empire has rendered the president “deeply enmeshed with a legion of foreign and domestic government actors” and has undermined the integrity of the US political system.

 

Per The Post: “Fundamental to a President’s fidelity to faithfully execute his oath of office is the Constitution’s demand that the President ... disentangle his private finances from those of domestic and foreign powers. Never before has a President acted with such disregard for this constitutional prescription.”

 

The suit could open a whole new issue against Trump as he continues to deal with the various investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and the congressional committees.  These are the issues of possible collusion between Trump’s associates and the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign.

 

The problem of the suits is that since Trump is not receiving these finances as a “gift” from another nation or organization, they may not be considered by a federal judge as a hit against the clause in the US Constitution.  However, the reality is that the Trump businesses are receiving major increases in income due to Trump being the US president.

 

If a federal judge does allow the case to proceed, the attorneys general may start off by demanding a thorough discovery process of copies of Trump’s personal tax returns.  This would be to gauge the extent of Trump’s foreign business dealings. That fight would most likely end up before the Supreme Court, with Trump’s attorneys having to defend why his tax returns should remain private.

 

“This case is, at its core, about the right of Marylanders, residents of the District of Columbia and all Americans to have an honest government,” Frosh said. “To fully know the extent of Trump’s constitutional violations, we’ll need to see his financial records, his taxes that he has refused to release.”

 

Racine has also said he felt obligated to sue Trump in part because the Republican-controlled Congress has not taken the president’s apparent conflicts seriously.  “We’re getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be,” he said.

 

The constitutional question DC and Maryland will put before a federal judge is whether Trump’s business ownership amount to violations of parts of the Constitution known as “the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses”.  The simplest definition of this clause is that an "emolument" is “compensation for services”. It has also been said to mean "advantage" or "benefit." The word comes from emolumentum, which is Latin for “profit” or “gain." 

 

The clause was originally added to the Constitution to guard against foreign countries gaining sway over the new republic’s ambassadors or its elected officials.  The drafters of the Constitution prohibited any, “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust from accepting any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

 

In another part of the Constitution, framers sought to prevent a president from favoring one state over another, forbidding him from receiving any gift or emolument from a state and instead, only compensation that is approved by Congress.

 

The lawsuit is filed in the District Court for the District of Maryland, and is the latest and most significant legal challenge to Trump over the issue of emoluments.

 

The first lawsuit was filed in January by a private organization called: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C. (CREW) and it is a watchdog political organization.  In addition, a DC restaurant sued Trump, alleging the new Trump International Hotel in DC benefits from unfair advantages because of its close association with the president.

 

Last week, a group of Democratic members of Congress said they plan to also file a suit soon.  These however, have faced legal hurdles over attempting to sue the president.

 

The attorneys general Racine and Frosh, argue that Trump’s violations are on a scale never seen before and that both DC and Maryland are being adversely affected by the Trump hotel near the White House.

 

Norman Eisen, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama and is CREW’s board chairman, has said jurisdictions such as the District and Maryland are among the “most perfect plaintiffs” to sue over emoluments because they have a co-equal say in making sure the Constitution is being enforced.

“This case represents another storm, not just a dusting of snow, but a blizzard of trouble for Trump,” Eisen said. “Who better than governmental actors to say our deal was, our fundamental democratic bargain was, we would get a president who would follow the Constitution.”

 

Racine and Frosh say that unless Trump is reined in under the emoluments clause, Americans can never be certain that, “underlying his travel ban, his withdrawal from the Paris Accord climate deal or proposed tax cuts” that he is acting in the country’s best interest and not his own.

 

We all knew this was going to be an issue, when the president decided to not put his businesses aside while he was president.  However, no one knew it would get so bad, so fast.  Donald Trump and his family are making mountains of money due to his becoming the US president.

 

Strict following of the emoluments clauses, DC and Maryland argue, “ensure that Americans do not have to guess whether a President who orders their sons and daughters to die in foreign lands acts out of concern for his private business interests; they do not have to wonder if they lost their job due to trade negotiations in which the President has a personal stake; and they never have to question whether the President can sit across the bargaining table from foreign leaders and faithfully represent the world’s most powerful democracy, unencumbered by fear of harming his own companies.”

 

It has already become known that the president has no problem in exaggerating or flat lying about any issue, both trivial or major.  This appears to be just another issue that puts him far apart from other, more honest former US Presidents.

 

 

Let's hope the lawsuits stick.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017