U.S. judge rejects Trump administration bid to halt emoluments lawsuit

Reuters ^ | November 2, 2018 | by Jan Wolfe

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A federal judge on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s bid to postpone a lawsuit alleging that President Donald Trump’s business dealings violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on receiving improper payments from foreign governments.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte in Greenbelt, Maryland ruled against the administration’s request to bring an expedited appeal of rulings that allowed the case to proceed and to halt the discovery process, evidence-gathering that could force disclosure of Trump’s financial records.

Karl Racine, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, called the judge’s action a victory.

“Our next step is to proceed with discovery,” Racine said in a statement. “We will soon provide the court a new schedule to begin the process of getting information about how President Trump is profiting from the presidency.”

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Bill Clinton appointee.

[Zathras]

Probably one of the dumbest rulings ever.

[Hyman Roth]

Absolutely ridiculous.

[Salvavida]

He will be overturned.

[jyo19]

You just have to simply assume that any democrat-appointed judge is an activist first and that the actual law doesn’t matter. That’s why it was so important to keep the SCOTUS because having actual judges and not people who are democrats are first and jurists second at the highest level is a check over wack jobs like this guy.

[ObozoMustGo2012]

"Hold our beer...."

[Williams]

The judge is refusing to allow the president to appeal now because these aren’t “final rulings” in the case. The administration will have to ask the appellate court to step in.

[fortheDeclaration]

Democrats make everything political!

[Brilliant]

All he did was rule that it can’t be dismissed out of hand. I doubt it will go much further. I wonder why a MD judge is considering this case.

[Ingtar]

Allowing discovery to continue allows them a way to leak Trump’s tax returns - that they think are damaging since he earned a profit some years and losses in others.

[marktwain]

I wonder why a MD judge is considering this case.

Because that is where the political activist filing the case judge shopped it was likely to succeed.

Judge shopping has become a bane of our society.

[RedMonqey]

“We will soon provide the court a new schedule to begin the process of getting information about how President Trump is profiting from the presidency.”

If that is the standard for being 'illegal", then every president from Nixon forward has "profited" from using the Office of the Presidency.

Does anyone have any doubt that this lawsuit would never have been sponsored by this group of hacks if Hillary had won?

Can you say "Clinton Foudation"?

(I knew you could)

[shotgun]

The Trump legal team should assign the DOJ or Dept. of State, to handle the discovery request. They will take at least 4-6 years...

[Buckeye McFrog]

He will be overturned.

He got this stupid story into the headlines four days before midterms, so he no doubt looks at it as a win.

[RedMonqey]

Trump was a businessman BEFORE he was elected and will be after his second term is over. In the meanwhile, people will use his hotel(s) and other property.

Most of the presidents in the pre bellum period either had slaves or had holdings that benefited from the institution. Was that illegal? Was Jimmy Carter's peanut warehouse affected by his agricultural policies. Or any other president who had a farm and issued tariffs to protect his assets?

Why isn't this group going after Hillary and Bill, While she didn't win, she certainly was a public official who no doubt benefited from her and his association with "public service"

Would love to be on the court and ask these clowns "what if" questions

I can already hear them sputtering....

[ZULU]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jo_Messitte

Appointed by Rapist in Chief.

[AmericanVictory]

The Fourth Circuit, as presently constituted, has been much of a rubber stamp for this judge, even, on occasion, when he has clearly committed error.

[arrogantsob]

George Washington was a major tobacco exporter all through his presidency.

[j.havenfarm]

Inaccurate: the judge doesn’t decide if one can appeal or not. With some exceptions, orders made while the case is progressing are not appealable. Such orders can only be redressed by a writ petition to the reviewing court. From the layman’s point of view you can think of the processes as synonymous, though writs are actually harder to get

[RedMonqey]

George Washington was a major tobacco exporter all through his presidency.

As much of Southern farming families grew tobacco(Mine did until we sold our "base". If you know what "base" means, you might be a farmer) lt was a "cash crop"

In the eyes of today's PC snowflakes, that makes him a "merchant of Death