MORE INTERESTING EVENTS COMING FROM THE ADMINISTRATION

…Crazy Rudy

Federal judge approves lawsuit of the president for violating the US Constitution.

Interesting to watch the clips of Trump spokspersons on cable news.

Rudy Giuliani is first seen saying that Michael Cohen is a fine, upstanding lawyer.

Then Giuliani is seen saying that Trump wasn’t mad at Michael Cohen flipping on Trump, he said he was more disappointed like a father disappointed in losing a son.

Next we see Rudy saying that the special counselor Mueller should not rely on a pathological liar like Michael Cohen as a witness.  (It’s interesting that,as a Federal Prosecutor, Giuliani regularly counted on the testimony of Mafia gangster liars flipping on their Mafia bosses.)  One person on MSNBC said when she heard Giulianai talking about this person that has been telling lies upon lies, upon lies, the listener thought Giuliani was talking about Donald Trump, not Michael Cohen.

Now Mueller has subpoenaed Trump’s CFO that has been in that position since he had worked for Trump’s father.  Between this CFO and Cohen, they probably know pretty much everything there is to know about Donald Trump’s business activities.

So, as big as the Trump / Cohen story is, a federal judge has now decided to let a Trump lawsuit alleging ongoing violations of the “emoluments clause” in the US Constitution to proceed.  All of these events are converging toward one basic endpoint.  All of these events demonstrate the degree to which Trump places his personal interests before those of the American people.  They seriously shed light on that disgusting reality in more detail than Trump ever bargained for.

Meanwhile, the judge’s latest ruling means the court battle over whether Trump is violating the Constitution with his business profits, that now shifts into a new phase that could bring even more revelations.

In that ruling, the federal judge denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and Washington, D.C..  They allege that Trump, whose businesses are regularly patronized by foreign officials, is violating the US Constitution’s ban on any US officials accepting emoluments from foreign governments.

The court rejected Trump’s effort to define “emoluments” very narrowly, and the court instead accepted the argument that they constitute “profit,” “gain” or “advantage,”  just the sort of profits that are going to Trump’s businesses.

This means the case now moves forward to confirm whether Trump reaped such profit, gain or advantage from foreign governments, which of course he did and still does.

In an interview with, Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is involved in the lawsuit, the director laid out the next steps.  That being, that D.C. and Maryland will now seek discovery access to the financial records of Trump’s businesses.  In particular, the luxury hotel he owns in D.C. “We’re going to seek records to show what benefits and payments the president has received, and that’s going to include extensive business and financial records,” Bookbinder said.

It is possible that Trump will try to block the discovery process, through an appeal. But if he fails, Bookbinder said, the discovery process could “prove that the president has been receiving illegal payments.”  This would be a demonstration at a new level of detail for documenting “foreign officials paying to stay at a Trump hotel”.  This alone would show that: “the president is violating the US Constitution.”

The goal is to get the court to flatly declare that in accepting these payments, Trump is violating the foundation of US law, and even better, for the court to order Trump to stop.  For instance, Trump might have to divest from his businesses (which he has so far refused to do), or his hotel might have to stop accepting the forms of business that constitute the violation.  The case would probably go to the US Supreme Court, and it’s possible the plaintiffs could lose or gain only a partial victory.  This would be if the courts declare that Trump is violating the Constitution, but this conservative court might not order an end to it.

Another possibility, of course, is that Trump could defy a court order to stop, which would then precipitate a Constitutional Crisis.

Whatever happens, we may well learn much more about the scope and nature of Trump’s profiteering. This will boost pressure on congressional Republicans to exercise real oversight (which will happen only if Democrats take back the House). But either way, the public will learn a good deal more about Trump’s questionable profiteering, and about the congressional GOP’s abdication in the face of it.  (However, for Trump’s base and Fox News, they would probably just ignore whatever the court decides.)

And on top of all this, here was the latest headline from the New York Times: TRUMP TAX CUT BALLOONS THE DEFICIT!

Jim Tankersley, the New York Times Economy Reporter took a look at how the Trump/GOP tax cut is pushing up the deficit to nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. And it could get worse: “The drop in tax payments has come as the American economy is already the healthiest it has been since the 2008 crisis.  This raises the questions about whether the deficit could balloon further if growth begins to slow.  

Analysts today expect growth to slow in the second half of the year, as interest rates continue to rise and trade tensions weigh on the economy. 

The next 12 months are looking to be very interesting for all concerned, but mostly not for the good.

Copyright G.Ater  2018