Suit: Trump firms tied to foreign governments

NEW YORK — To fight what it called a “grave threat” to the country, a watchdog group on Monday filed a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by allowing his business to accept payments from foreign governments.

The lawsuit claims that a constitutional clause prohibits Trump from receiving money from diplomats for stays at his hotels or foreign governments for leases of office space in his buildings.

The language in the clause is disputed by legal experts, and some think the lawsuit will fail. But it signals the start of a legal assault on what Trump critics see as unprecedented conflicts between his business and the presidency.

Trump called the lawsuit “without merit, totally without merit” after he signed some of his first executive actions Monday.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed the lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.

The group is being represented in part by two former White House chief ethics lawyers: Norman Eisen, who advised Barack Obama, and Richard Painter, who worked under George W. Bush. The two have expressed frustration that Trump has refused to take their recommendation and divest from his business, and feel they had no choice but to take legal action.

“As the Framers were aware, private financial interests can subtly sway even the most virtuous leaders,” the lawsuit argues, “and entanglements between American officials and foreign powers could pose a creeping, insidious threat to the Republic.”

At a news conference earlier this month, Trump Organization lawyer Sheri Dillon said the so-called emoluments clause of the Constitution isn’t meant to ban fair-value exchanges.

The group behind Monday’s lawsuit also filed a complaint Friday addressed to the General Services Administration, which oversees the lease of the government building that houses Trump’s Washington hotel. The complaint argued the agency must cancel the lease because it expressly forbids any elected official from benefiting from it.

GSA officials had said they needed to wait until Trump took office before weighing in on the issue.