Appeals court revives lawsuit on Trump hotel

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court Thursday revived a lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington from accepting payments from foreign and state governments.

In a divided decision, the court refused to dismiss the novel lawsuit that accuses the president of illegally profiting from foreign and state government patrons at his Washington hotel. The case, brought by the top lawyers for Maryland and the District of Columbia, is one of a set of lawsuits alleging the president’s private business transactions violate the Constitution’s anti-corruption emoluments ban.

“We recognize that the President is no ordinary petitioner, and we accord him great deference as the head of the Executive branch,” Judge Diana Motz wrote for a majority of judges.

But the court denied Trump’s request to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it would not “grant the extraordinary relief the President seeks.”

The ruling from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is at odds with a decision in March in a separate, similar case that barred individual members of Congress from suing the president over his private business.

The split rulings suggest the Supreme Court will have the final word in the cases involving the rarely tested emoluments provisions intended to prevent foreign and state officials from having undue influence on U.S. leaders, including the president.

At the 4th Circuit, a full complement of 15 judges in December took a second look at the lawsuit from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine.

An initial three-judge panel of the same court had tossed the lawsuit and said the attorneys general did not have legal grounds, or standing, to sue. But the full court agreed to rehear the case and to decide whether to take the extraordinary step to dismiss it midstream as the president’s lawyers requested.

Trump has retained ownership of his private business and can benefit from it financially. His sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, run the company.

The emoluments case centers on the president’s hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in northwest Washington, where foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain, have booked rooms and events since Trump entered the White House.

Trump’s Justice Department lawyers say the president is not violating the emoluments clauses because the language bars only payments in exchange for official action or as part of an employment relationship.

A District Court judge in Maryland disagreed and interpreted the provisions to ban U.S. officials from accepting any profit, gain or advantage from foreign officials. The judge signed off on more than a dozen subpoenas for Trump’s closely held financial records to determine which foreign and state governments have paid the Trump Organization and how much.

But the subpoenas have been on hold pending the outcome of the president’s appeal.

In a separate case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Democratic members of Congress led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., have decided not to seek rehearing by a full complement of judges.

The lawmakers have until July to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court to review the three-judge panel decision, which blocked individual members of Congress from trying to enforce the foreign emoluments clause.