Moving beyond Mueller, Democrats focus on Trump’s properties

WASHINGTON — Casting their Trump nets beyond the special counsel’s Russia report, House Democrats are demanding information about the spending of taxpayer money at the president’s hotels and properties. They’re seeing violations of the U.S. Constitution that some think could bolster the case for impeachment.

There have been “multiple efforts” by President Donald Trump and administration officials to spend federal money at his properties, including Vice President Mike Pence’s stay this week at a Trump resort in Doonbeg, Ireland , the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees said in letters Friday to the White House, federal agencies and the Trump Organization.

The Democrats describe Pence’s visit, and the possibility that next year’s Group of Seven summit will be held at Trump’s Miamiarea Doral golf resort , as corrupting the presidency. Payments from foreign officials are particularly troubling, they say, considering the emoluments clause in the Constitution that bans the president from taking gifts from other governments.

“We have been focused on the Mueller report, and that is a very small part of the overall picture,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Judiciary panel. “We must get America focused on the ongoing violations against basic constitutional principles.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y., said taxpayer spending in Trump’s business empire is “of grave concern” to his panel, which is weighing whether to recommend articles of impeachment. Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, DMd., said his committee “does not believe that U.S. taxpayer funds should be used to personally enrich President Trump, his family and his companies.”