Democrats sue Trump on foreign payments to biz
Around 200 Democratic lawmakers plan to sue President Donald Trump, accusing him of violating the constitution by accepting gifts and benefits from foreign government through his continued interests in his businesses.
The White House did not respond to the announcement of the lawsuit, which was to be filed on Wednesday. However, it noted with some relief attorney general Jeff Sessions’s testimony at the Senate intelligence committee in the ongoing Russia probe, that has engulfed the Trump presidency.
Trump thought “attorney general Sessions did a very good job”, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
Sessions told senators there was no collusion by him with the Russian meddling in the 2016 elections, despite his two meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He dismissed any such allegations as “despicable”.
The lawsuit by the Democrats joins another two filed earlier by Democratic attorneys general of Washington and Maryland regarding Trump’s business interests that receive foreign payments, gifts and benefits.
The 37-page congressional complaint is premised on a clause of Article I of the US Constitution, which says, “(No) Person holding any office of profit or trust under (the US), shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”
The complainants, who argue that the clause seeks to prevent “foreign states (that) would give benefits and rewards to the nation’s chief executive to subvert his loyalty”, will ask the court to order Trump to not accept “any benefits from foreign states without first obtaining Congressional consent”.