The Establishments war on Donald Trump
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Title: Ethics charity sues Trump over his business interests claiming the President is 'illegally receiving payment from foreign states'
Source:
Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... -Trump-business-interests.html
Published: Jan 23, 2017
Author: Associated Press and Chris Summers For M
Post Date: 2017-01-23 11:24:00 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 308
President Donald Trump will receive a federal lawsuit today from an ethics charity which claims he has 'illegally received payments from foreign governments'. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) claim Trump is in breach of the US Constitution because he has not divested himself of his business interests, including the hotel in the Old Post Office building in DC. The Trump Organization leased the building from the federal government before turning it into a hotel, and the lease expressly prohibits any elected official from benefiting from the property. The Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington (pictured) is housed in the Old Post Office, which is leased from the federal government CREW, which claims to be non-partisan, says Trump has broken an 'emoluments clause' in the Constitution which prevents the commander-in-chief from receiving payments from foreign governments. They argue that because guests staying at the hotel and other Trump-owned resorts include politicians and government officials from China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, where he has business interests, he is in breach of the Constitution. The lawsuit says: 'When Trump the President sits down to negotiate trade deals with these countries, the American people will have no way of knowing whether he will also be thinking about the profits of Trump the businessman.' Trump's lawyer Sheri Dillon recently insisted the President was not in violation of the emoluments clause. She said at a press conference: 'Paying for a hotel room is not a gift or a present, and has nothing to do with an office. It is not an emolument. The Constitution does not require President-elect Trump to do anything here.' President Trump (pictured) denies he has done anything wrong and his son Eric said the lawsuit was 'purely harassment for political gain' The New York Times reported that Mr Trump's son Eric said of the CREW lawsuit: 'This is purely harassment for political gain, and, frankly, I find it very, very sad.' CREW will file the lawsuit at the Southern District of New York at 9am today. The group's director, Noah Bookbinder, said: '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. Patrick Keogh, a real estate investor in Austin, Texas, said: 'It's a simple matter of amending the lease.' He said Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter and chief negotiator on the hotel, should ask the GSA to exempt her father from that provision of the contract. But CREW and others say Trump must relinquish ownership of the hotel and sell off his company, putting the cash into a blind trust as previous presidents have done. He is not legally required to do so, but it has become common for presidents to separate themselves from their personal finances to avoid any possible conflicts with national policy. Trump handed control of his international real estate development, property management and licensing company to his two adult sons. 'The Trump Organization has directed that no communications of the organization, including social media accounts, will reference or otherwise be tied to President-elect Trump's role as president of the United States or the office of the presidency,' a company attorney wrote in a briefing released earlier this month. 
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