‘Emoluments’ suit against president allowed to proceed

Focus narrowed to D.C. hotel

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled that the District of Columbia and Maryland may proceed with a lawsuit against President Donald Trump alleging that Mr. Trump’s business dealings have violated the Constitution’s ban on receiving improper “emoluments,” or payments, from individual states and foreign governments.

But the judge limited the case to the president’s involvement with the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland, marks the first time that a lawsuit of this kind has cleared the initial legal hurdle — a finding that the plaintiffs have legal standing to sue the president.

In his opinion, Judge Messitte gave credence to arguments by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh — both Democrats — that Mr. Trump unfairly profits from business at downtown Washington’s Trump International Hotel, in which the president continues to hold a financial interest.

Judge Messitte cited examples of government clients — including Kuwait and Bahrain — patronizing the Washington hotel, possibly to the detriment of competitors and taxpayers. He wrote that Maryland and the District had sufficiently argued that Mr. Trump’s hotel “has had and almost certainly will continue to have an unlawful effect on competition.”

As part of that ruling, Judge Messitte said he rejected an argument made by critics of the lawsuit — that, under the Constitution, only Congress may decide whether the president has violated the emoluments clauses.

Judge Messitte’s ruling largely narrowed the lawsuit’s scope to the Washington hotel, saying that the District and Maryland had standing to sue because they could plausibly claim to have been injured by Mr. Trump’s receipt of payments from foreign and state governments.

The Justice Department, which is representing the president in this case, did not immediately say whether it would appeal.

After consulting with attorneys, Mr. Trump vowed last year to donate some profits from foreign governments to the U. S. treasury. This month the Trump Organization said it donated $151,470 but declined to explain how it came up with the amount.

Although Mr. Trump said he gave up day-today management of his business while he is in the White House, he still owns his businesses and can withdraw money from them at any time.