Posted on 06/12/2017 10:23:46 AM PDT by Rennes Templar
Attorneys general for Washington, D.C. and Maryland announced they're suing President Trump for accepting millions in payments from foreign governments which they say is "flagrantly violating" the Constitution's anti-corruption laws.
"Never in the history of this country have we had a president with these kinds of extensive business entanglements, or a president who refused to adequately distance themselves from their holdings," said D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine in a news conference on Monday. "President Trump's business and his dealings violate the constitution's anti-corruption provisions."
The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the report said.
"The president, above all other elected officials must have only the interest of Americans at the heart of every decision," said Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh.
In particular, the attorneys general declared that Mr. Trump's international hotel chain, among other international business interests, is a violation of the emoluments clause.
"Foreign governments are spending money there (at the hotel in Washington) in order to curry favor with the president," Racine said.
The emoluments clause, which is outlined in Article I of the Constitution, states that "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Essentially, the emoluments clause attempts to prevent corruption and influence from foreign governments over United States government officials.
"President Trump's vast global businesses and that empire he has is entangled with foreign and state government interest," Frosh said. He later added that the president's "personal interests could affect decisions about every aspect of American life from national security... to protection of natural resources."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I agree - The Capital needs to be downsized.
Yeah everybody wants to move to a public place to be slandered by as many swamp dwellers as possible, what’s not to like!
Way past time to enact LOSER PAYS.
This is absurd. Trump is not "accepting" emoluments. An emolument is a "salary, fee, or payment for employment" not a payment for service or goods rendered by a business.
Trump's businesses are a SEPARATE entity from TRUMP, not Trump himself. The businesses themselves are the "person," albeit a "fictitious" entity under law, that receives the payment from anyone doing business with them. As such, it is not Trump, the individual, who is being "paid by these governments," even if such payments were truly being paid.
If this kind of payment from foreign sources were the intended law, then any business payments made from any foreign source would be almost impossible to be associated with any government official in our government. It would preclude ANY person from the private sector from ever running for office without completely divesting himself or herself of every private investment. That, obviously, was not the intention of the emoluments clause. The emoluments clause was to prevent the direct payment of our officials for their direct services, or that could, in any way, be reflected in relation to their official duties. Revenues that are part of the normal course of business, especially those businesses which an official is no longer controlling, or merely has an ownership interest in, were not intended to be included.
It isn't even payment TO Trump, but to an entity that is NOT the individual named Donald J. Trump but a fictitious corporate entity that may be owned in part by Donald J. Trump, that pays him, from time to time, a dividend from the profits IT earns and then distributes to its investors. That's a round-a-bout payment method that is quite a bit diluted from the payments these governments.
Baseless.
These people need to be taken to the wood shed.
5.56mm
My girlfriend, Kathy, and I came up with the correct diagnosis in 2014. We have even written it un to be included in the next addenda to the IDC-10.
321.0 SPLAT Liberal Cerebral Defenestration (LCD) or Liberal Acquired Brain Absence (LABA), complete loss of rationality, cognition, and cerebration due to indiscriminately keeping one's mind so far open that the brain falls out. First and subsequent encounters.
And, yes, it is infectious among Liberals. Conservatism is the only known preventive and treatment for its symptoms.
Do Trump’s businesses have investors? They are not publicly traded.
Sure they do. Trump is often not even the majority owner. Often he is in partnership with other investors, but his name will be on the property do to his imprimatur. His casinos were operated that way. Often his hotels are partnerships. Most of his holdings are corporations, but they don't have to be publicly traded to be held by other investors as well as Trump. Trump would be extremely foolish to hold ANYTHING as a sole proprietor. The liability exposure would be too risky.
That's why Trump, himself, has never gone bankrupt but businesses he's been involved with have done so four times. He's come out unscathed. It was the CORPORATE entities that went under. Trump lost his investment in those businesses (or part of it) but never his whole net worth. The fictitious entity of those four corporations filed the bankruptcies, not Trump. In fact, if I recall correctly, in most of them, Trump had a less than 10% interest. . . but his name was on them.
... all which are carefully crafted and on a "trickle-out" schedule to accomplish the Left's objective to derail President Trump's plans to Make America Great Again.
The Left's strategy is both to attack the President directly -- to distract him (which isn't working as well as the Democrat heel-nippers hoped it would) -- and to provide the Republican Party leaders in Congress a reason -- really, an excuse -- to drag their collective feet on implementing and funding President Trump's plans (which, in the minds of the Democrat Left as well as the GOP leadership, is having some measure of "success" in delaying MAGA).
Frivolous lawsuits - Is there any violation of law for which people like these can be charged??
Barratry?
Vexatious litigation or the incitement of it.
Much of Trump’s Business is Branding. People pay to use his Name on their Holdings and Products.
Liberals think Trump makes stuff, he doesn’t. He lends his Name to a Product and gets a piece of the action. He does own the Winery that makes his Brand though.
Remember Johnny Carson Menswear? Johnny got a Check in the mail, he didn’t run a Clothing Sweatshop in China.
I’m waiting for them to sue him to make him change his Name. Too may people recognize it. LOL
Frosch is a neo-Marxist little shit who did then Mayor O’Malley’s dirty work against both state and federal opponents.
He needs to be impeached or charged with malfeasance of office, wasting the state’s taxpayers funds, malicious prosecution, and just being a nasty typical Democratic Good Nazi/German Prosecutor like those who sent so many Jews and other innocent German citizens to concentration camps and death.
Yep, Trump supporters/ Deplorables really really need to organize. How that’s accomplished I don’t know but if it occurred there would be some power to push back.
He died of natural causes. No need for an autopsy or an investigation. Lack of gun control laws killed Seth Rich.
Fr0sh, the giant pimple on Maryland’s behind, is back!
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
“The state of Maryland needs a damned enema. Too many sewage-dwellers living here and running things.”
will marylander’s tax dollars be paying the salaries for these liberal progressive atty general lawyers when they pursue this ridiculous nuisance suit? and could the saner folk in maryland sue for misuse of their taxes?
I hope you are right, but doubt it.
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