Attorney Generals Allege Trump Is Profiting From Presidency

The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for accepting payments to his businesses from foreign governments.

The lawsuit alleges the payments violate the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits elected officials from receiving payments from other governments.

D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, both Democrats, allege that Trump’s decision to keep ownership of his global business empire “calls into question the rule of law and the integrity of the country’s political system.”

“Constituents must know that a president who orders our sons and daughters into harm’s way is not acting out of concern for his own business,” Frosh said at a press conference. “They must know that we will not enter into a treaty with another nation because our president owns a golf course there.”

Is Trump Profiting From Presidency?

The Washington Post reported the suit argues that D.C. and Maryland are being hurt because the Trump International Hotel in Washington may be unfairly competing with the taxpayer-owned Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the District and a taxpayer-subsidized center in Maryland.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the Post it’s “not hard to conclude that partisan politics may be one of the motivations” for the lawsuit.

Some other allegations in the suit, according to D.C. news reports:

• The Kuwaiti Embassy held an event at the Trump hotel switching its initial booking from the Four Seasons.
• A public-relations firm hired by Saudi Arabia, which Trump visited on his first trip abroad as president, spent more than $270,000 on rooms, meals and parking at Trump’s hotel. It said Saudi officials used the space to lobby against a measure in Congress that could expose the Saudi government to lawsuits.
• Turkey held a state-sponsored event there last month and the ambassador of Georgia stayed at the hotel.
• Trump has appeared at the hotel and greeted guests repeatedly since becoming president, including popping in on wedding receptions unannounced.
• The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland names 10 countries it says Trump has profited from as president.

Historian Who Picked Trump Presidency Now Forecasts His Impeachment _________ Image Credit: By Michael Vadon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons