To Speed Up Case, AGs Drop Trump Personally From Emoluments Case

UNITED STATES - JUNE 12: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, left, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, conduct a news conference on a lawsuit they've filed against President Donald Trump alleging he violated emoluments clauses in the Constitution by accepting foreign payments through his businesses on June 12, 2017. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - JUNE 12: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, left, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, conduct a news conference on a lawsuit they've filed against President Donald Trump alleging he violated em... UNITED STATES - JUNE 12: Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, left, and D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, conduct a news conference on a lawsuit they've filed against President Donald Trump alleging he violated emoluments clauses in the Constitution by accepting foreign payments through his businesses on June 12, 2017. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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State attorneys general suing Trump for allegedly violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause dismissed claims against the president in his personal capacity in an effort to speed up the case.

Writing that they are dismissing the portion of the suit that targeted Trump’s personal liability over alleged emoluments violations, attorneys general for Maryland and DC wrote that the intent was “to allow the claims against President Trump in his official capacity to move forward expeditiously.”

Other claims focus on Trump in his official capacity. As a government official, the official capacity claim is treated as a lawsuit against the government that Trump represents, compelling the Justice Department to defend against the suit.

That claim is currently being litigated in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, as the Justice Department tries to put a stop to discovery at the district court level before the state attorneys general receive responses to their first round of subpoenas by the Jan. 3 deadline.

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  1. I expect that avant-garde legal theorist and performance artist Rudy Giuliani will soon proclaim this a “total vindication” for his client.

  2. Once again Donald Trump, the man, gets a pass. This time for the sake of expediency? I guess this is how one earns a nickname like “Teflon Don”. Once again, the benefits of wealth and station make themselves apparent. Would any average citizen ever get so much leniency and consideration?

    It does explain why it seemed like the DOJ had been “acting on Trump’s behalf”. It hasn’t. It’s defending the office, not the man.

    OK. Whatever. After the wholesale dismissal of the “serious” ethics complaints against Kavanaugh, and now this on top of everything else, I’m beyond disgusted, and becoming irreparably jaded about it all.

    22 Months. We have 22 months to stop the bleeding and maybe put an end to all the carnage… until then I think it may be necessary to find happiness elsewhere. Politics just isn’t fun anymore.

  3. Sadly, the question answers itself. My fear is that the end game becomes a Grand Bargain in which Trump and his co-conspiring criminal family all walk in exchange for his resignation, a scenario he’ll promptly attempt to monetize.

  4. It’s a clever legal move, since any emoluments clause violation claim necessarily needs to show Trump took money as “president” from foreign entities and special interests. On this claim, the State AGs have a slam dunk case.

  5. Trump can’t evade state law proceedings and ambitious AGs in New York, Illinois, California, and Maryland have no reason to stop their cases.

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