Owners to claim over emissions

and Washington, DC. They say the Trump Hotel in the nation’s capital affects business in the Washington area. Maryland attorney-general Brian Frosh also underscored that the framers of the constitution included the clause for good reason.

“If the justice department is right, the emoluments clause has no meaning whatsoever,” Frosh said. “The president can stand over here with his president of the US hat and he’s not allowed to take payments, but he takes a step over here and puts on his businessman hat they can funnel as much money to him as they want. You got no emoluments clause there, and it’s absolutely clear that the framers of the constitution intended that to protect us from presidential corruption.”

The two attorneys-general also hope that the case will build a record against Trump through the discovery process in the court case.

Frosh said the president has discussed some of his business dealings on the campaign trail, noting Trump’s mention that a state-owned Chinese bank has office space in Trump Tower in New York.

“He bragged about that on the campaign trial,” Frosh said. “I don’t think he’s giving it to them for free, and there are many sources that have given us information about the payments that he has received. We’ll have a lot more after we get discovery.”

Racine noted that the emoluments clause hasn’t been tested by the Supreme Court or federal circuit courts.

The lawsuit also focuses on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his company when he became president.

If a federal judge allows the case to proceed, Racine and Frosh say they will demand copies of Trump’s personal tax returns in court to gauge the extent of his foreign business dealings. – AP A GROUP representing 180 000 Volkswagen owners said it was preparing a claim against the German auto manufacturer over the company’s use of software designed to conceal the true level of nitrogen oxide emissions caused by its diesel cars. The Volkswagen Car Claim Foundation said it had decided to take the step after discussions since 2015 with Volkswagen, Bosch and Dutch car dealerships that sold cars with the software had proved fruitless. Dutch law has a mass claims procedure similar to class action suits in the US, where Volkswagen is paying billions of dollars in regulatory fines, technical fixes and compensation to drivers. The Dutch foundation said it was in talks with consumer-claims groups to join in a pan-European suit against Volkswagen. – Reuters