Trump holdings unconstitutional, suit says
Two Democratic attorneys general claim ‘emoluments clause’ violated
Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland sued President Donald Trump in federal court on Monday, alleging that payments by foreign governments to his global business empire violate anti-corruption provisions in the Constitution.
Trump’s decision to retain ownership in his businesses “calls into question the rule of law and the integrity of the country’s political system,” according to the suit filed by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, both Democrats.
At a news conference, the two said Trump is “flagrantly violating” the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits U.S. officeholders from taking anything of value from foreign leaders. The conflicts of interests are so vast, Frosh said, that Americans cannot say for sure whether Trump’s actions on a given day are taken in the best interest of the country or that of his companies.
“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. “They must know that we will not enter into a treaty with another nation because our president owns a golf course there ... (or) change our trade policy because the foreign government patronizes the president’s hotels and resorts.”
Trump has put his assets in a trust handled by his sons. But he has pro-
moted and repeatedly visited his downtown D.C. hotel and his luxury resort in Florida, and his son Eric Trump has said the president will continue receiving regular updates about the financial health of his empire.
The lawsuit, the first of its kind brought by government entities, could open a new front for Trump as he navigates investigations by special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees of possible collusion between his associates and the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Legal experts said that of several civil suits filed against Trump since he moved into the White House, the one brought by D.C. and Maryland stands the best chance of making it all the way to the Supreme Court.
If it does proceed, Racine and Frosh say they will demand through the discovery process copies of Trump’s personal tax returns to gauge the extent of his foreign business dealings.
That fight would most likely end up before the Supreme Court, the two said, with Trump’s attorneys having to defend why the returns should remain private.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer dismissed the lawsuit as coming from Democrats. “The president’s interests ... do not violate the emoluments clause,” he said. “It’s not hard to conclude that partisan politics may be one of the motivations.”
The lawsuit alleges “unprecedented constitutional violations” by Trump. The suit says Trump’s continued ownership of a global business empire has rendered the president “deeply enmeshed with a legion of foreign and domestic government actors” and has undermined the integrity of the U.S. political system.
Racine said he felt obligated to sue Trump in part because the Republican-controlled Congress has not taken the president’s apparent conflicts seriously. “We’re getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be,” he said.
The constitutional question D.C. and Maryland will put before a federal judge is whether Trump’s business holdings amount to violations of parts of the Constitution known as the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses.
To guard against foreign countries gaining sway over the new republic’s ambassadors in the late 1700s, drafters of the Constitution prohibited any “Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust” from accepting “any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
Significant legal challenge
In another part of the Constitution, framers sought to prevent a president from favoring one state over another, forbidding the president from receiving any gift or emolument from a state and, instead, allowing only the compensation approved by Congress.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, is the latest and most significant legal challenge to Trump over the issue of emoluments. The first was filed in January by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW) in Washington, a D.C.-based watchdog group. In March, a D.C. restaurant sued Trump, alleging the new Trump International Hotel in D.C. benefits from unfair advantages because of its close association with the president. And last week, a group of Democratic members of Congress said they plan to file suit.
Each complaint, however, has faced legal hurdles over standing to sue the president.
In the Trump administration’s most detailed response yet, the Justice Department filed a 70-page legal brief Friday arguing the CREW lawsuit should be dismissed. The administration said Trump’s businesses are legally permitted to accept payments from foreign governments while he is in office.
The filing held up the lack of past complaints — going all the way back to farm produce sold abroad by George Washington — to assert that market-rate payments for Trump’s real estate, hotel and golf companies do not constitute emoluments as defined by the Constitution.
Racine and Frosh, however, argue that violations by Trump are on scale never seen before and that D.C. and Maryland are being adversely affected by the Trump hotel near the White House.
Business from diplomats
After the Trump hotel hired staff and began holding events to cater to foreign diplomats, the Kuwaiti Embassy held an event at the hotel, switching its initial booking from the Four Seasons. Saudi Arabia, which Trump visited on his first trip abroad as president, has also booked rooms at the hotel through an intermediary on more than one occasion since Trump’s inauguration. Turkey held a state-sponsored event there last month.
And in April, the ambassador of Georgia stayed at the hotel and tweeted his compliments. Trump has appeared at the hotel and greeted guests repeatedly since becoming president.
As a result, the hotel may be drawing business away from the taxpayer-owned Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. and one in Maryland subsidized by taxpayers, Frosh and Racine argue.
Norman Eisen, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama and is CREW’s board chairman, said jurisdictions such as Washington and Maryland are among the “most perfect plaintiffs” to sue over emoluments because they have a say in making sure the Constitution is being enforced.
“In the emoluments clauses, we have these ancient air bags that were placed in the Constitution by the framers that are now being deployed,” said Eisen, whose nonprofit group has been advising Washington, D.C. and Maryland on their lawsuit.
“Trump is the framers’ worstcase scenario; a president who would seize office and attempt to exploit his position for personal financial gain with every governmental entity imaginable, across the United States or around the world.”
Financial favors from U.S.
On the domestic side, the suit alleges Trump has received unconstitutional financial favors from the U.S. government.
It says the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, wrongly allowed Trump’s company to continue to lease the Old Post Office building, where Trump built his D.C. hotel, even though a clause in the contract said no elected official could remain on the lease.
The GSA initially said Trump would have to fully divest from the hotel after the election. But after Trump proposed increasing the GSA’s budget, the lawsuit says, the agency issued a letter saying Trump was in full compliance.
The lawsuit also alleges that Trump is violating domestic emoluments by creating a situation in which states feel compelled to compete for Trump’s favor, perhaps by offering zoning exemptions, waivers or other benefits to help his businesses.
After the Trump Organization initially said it would not pursue new deals while he was in office, Trump’s sons announced last week that the company would begin building a network of new hotels in mostly Republican-leaning states that he won in last year’s election.