Watchdog Group To Sue Trump Over Business With Foreign Governments

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (C) with son Eric Trump and wife Melania Trump cut the ribbon at the new Trump International Hotel October 26, 2016 in Washington, DC. Photo by Olivier Douliery/Abaca
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The liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will on Monday morning file a lawsuit against President Trump, accusing him of violating the Constitution by accepting money from foreign governments.

“We did not want to get to this point. It was our hope that President Trump would take the necessary steps to avoid violating the Constitution before he took office,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Sunday evening announcing the lawsuit. “He did not. His constitutional violations are immediate and serious, so we were forced to take legal action.”

CREW argues that Trump violated the Constitution’s emolument’s clause, which bars presidents from receiving payments from foreign governments, including businesses owned by governments.

The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Times on Sunday. The suit will ask a federal court in New York to demand that Trump stop taking money from foreign governments.

The Trump Organization leases space to state-owned companies and rents space at its hotels to foreign dignitaries, as the Washington Post noted. In the complaint, CREW argues that by renting to state-owned companies, accepting payments from those who attend Trump’s golf courses, and obtaining loans from foreign state-owned banks, Trump has violated the emoluments clause, according to the New York Times.

CREW will be represented by several prominent constitutional scholars, former White House ethics staffers, and Supreme Court litigator Deepak Gupta.

“The framers of the Constitution were students of history,” Gupta told the New York Times. “And they understood that one way a republic could fail is if foreign powers could corrupt our elected leaders.”

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  1. And rightly so. He is clearly in violation of the Enomulments Clause at this very moment. To make matters worse for him, after his news conference-turned infomercial, with the fake stacks of folders, he has not filed any paperwork in any state to transfer ownership of a single thing to anyone, including his sons and daughter(s). Nada.

  2. The District Court might let this suit proceed beyond a motion to dismiss - but would the Court of Appeals allow the floodgates to remain open?

  3. While laudable, I would point out that Clowngress can approve his receipts and this cowardly and craven lot probably will.

  4. Good luck guys. I read that this is a great way to get his tax returns released. The first step is to be granted standing even to sue, that might be a high bar.

    Thanks all around to Kellyanne Conway’s husband George. Owing to his work on the Paula Jones case the president can now be sued in office.

    And good luck to Summer and all the other plaintiffs. We’re watching. We can’t help much otherwise, but we’re watching.

  5. SCOTUS: We need to honor the free speech of foreign nations if it helps Republicans.

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