IV 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 456 

Objecting to the conduct of the President of the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 19, 2017 

Mr. COHEN (for himself, Mr. AL GREEN of Texas, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, 

Ms. LEE, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. LEWIS of 

Georgia, Mr. YARMUTH, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Ms. BASS, Mr. 

ELLISON, Mr. GUTIE ́RREZ, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. DESAULNIER, Mr. POCAN, 

Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. 

JACKSON LEE, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. BEYER, 

Mr. NADLER, Mr. TED LIEU of California, and Mr. CA ́RDENAS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees 

on the Judiciary, and Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently 

determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Objecting to the conduct of the President of the United 

States. 

Whereas, on January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump swore to 

‘‘faithfully execute the Office of President of the United 

States’’ and to ‘‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’’; 


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Whereas the Constitution prohibits Federal office holders 

from accepting emoluments of any kind from a foreign 

state without the consent of Congress; 

Whereas President Trump has refused to divest, place into a 

blind trust, or otherwise give up his ownership interest in 

his worldwide business holdings since becoming President; 

Whereas President Trump has refused to release his tax returns, in a break from the practice of United States 

Presidents for more than 40 years; 

Whereas, on February 14, 2017, the Chinese Government 

registered a trademark to Donald John Trump for branded construction services, following a 10-year legal battle 

that turned in Donald John Trump’s favor after he declared his candidacy for President of the United States; 

Whereas, on February 27, 2017, and March 6, 2017, the 

Chinese Government granted preliminary approval of 38 

new trademarks to Donald John Trump and one of his 

companies, and the director of a Hong Kong intellectual 

property consultancy said he had never seen so many applications approved so expeditiously, and the approvals 

closely followed President Trump’s decision to honor the 

one-China policy, in contrast to his earlier statements; 

Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the 

consent of Congress before accepting any of these trademark benefits from China; 

Whereas President Trump owns approximately 77 percent of 

the Trump Old Post Office LLC, which holds a lease 

from the General Services Administration to operate the 

Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; 


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Whereas the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, 

has actively courted foreign diplomats for their business 

and, according to public reports since the November 2016 

election, diplomats have made plans to stay at the hotel 

to curry favor with Donald John Trump and, whereas, 

some diplomats have said spending money at Trump’s 

hotel is an easy, friendly gesture to the new President; 

Whereas, in late January 2017, a lobbying firm working for 

the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia paid for a room at the 

Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, after Inauguration Day as part of its effort to bring activists to 

Washington to urge Congress to repeal the law letting 9/ 

11 victims’ families sue the Kingdom; 

Whereas the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, 

has reportedly taken in $270,000 in payments tied to 

Saudi Arabia for expenses including lodging, catering, 

and parking expenses; 

Whereas, on February 22, 2017, the Embassy of Kuwait held 

its National Day Celebration at Trump International 

Hotel Washington, DC; 

Whereas, on or about April 6, 2017, the Ambassador and 

Permanent Representative of Georgia to the United Nations stayed at Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; 

Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the 

consent of Congress before accepting any of the benefits 

from foreign states derived from their patronage of the 

Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC; 

Whereas President Trump owns Trump Tower, a mixed-use 

skyscraper in New York City and at least two tenants of 


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Trump Tower are entities owned by foreign states, including— 

(1) the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, 

which is owned by China; and 

(2) Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority, which 

is owned by the United Arab Emirates; 

Whereas President Trump did not first seek or obtain the 

consent of Congress before accepting any of the benefits 

from foreign states derived from their patronage of the 

Trump Tower in New York City; 

Whereas President Trump owns Trump World Tower in New 

York City and whereas, in 2001, the Kingdom of Saudi 

Arabia purchased a floor of Trump World Tower and the 

floor currently belongs to the Saudi Mission to the 

United Nations; 

Whereas President Trump has not sought or obtained the 

consent of Congress for any benefits he has received, 

such as monthly assessments, from Saudi Arabia due to 

its use of Trump World Tower in New York City; 

Whereas President Trump is an executive producer of ‘‘The 

Apprentice’’ and the state-owned television station BBC 

One in the United Kingdom pays licensing fees to broadcast the show; 

Whereas President Trump has not sought or obtained the 

consent of Congress before accepting benefits from the 

United Kingdom, or any other foreign government, in the 

form of licensing fees for ‘‘The Apprentice’’; 

Whereas President Trump’s travel to resorts in which he has 

an ownership interest, such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm 

Beach, Florida, the Trump National Golf Club in 

Bedminster, New Jersey, and the Trump National Golf 


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Club in Sterling, Virginia, costs taxpayers millions of dollars while such resorts receive the benefit of publicity; 

Whereas President Trump appointed Retired Lieutenant 

General Michael Flynn to serve as National Security Advisor; 

Whereas, on January 26, 2017, Acting Attorney General 

Sally Yates warned White House Counsel Don McGahn 

that National Security Advisor Flynn had misled Vice 

President Mike Pence about his communications with 

Russian Ambassador to the United States, Sergey 

Kislyak, and that, as a result, Flynn was at risk of being 

blackmailed by the Russians; 

Whereas Flynn was not asked to resign from the Administration until February 13, 2017; 

Whereas, on January 27, 2017, President Trump invited 

FBI Director James Comey to a one-on-one dinner at the 

White House, during which he told Director Comey he 

needed loyalty; 

Whereas, on February 14, 2017, President Trump told Director James Comey, ‘‘I hope you can see your way clear 

to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,’’ and, ‘‘He is a 

good guy. I hope you can let this go.’’; 

Whereas, on March 20, 2017, Director James Comey testified before Congress that the FBI was investigating Russian interference with the 2016 United States Presidential election and whether there was any collusion with 

the Trump campaign; 

Whereas, on May 9, 2017, while the FBI was investigating 

whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, President Trump fired FBI Director 

James Comey; 


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Whereas in his letter informing Director James Comey that 

he was being terminated, President Trump said, ‘‘While 

I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate 

occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.’’; 

Whereas, on May 12, 2017, while speaking in a nationally 

televised interview about his decision to fire Director 

James Comey, President Trump said, ‘‘And in fact when 

I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said you know, 

this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up 

story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an 

election that they should have won.’’; 

Whereas, according to a published report, President Trump 

told Russian officials, ‘‘I just fired the head of the FBI. 

He was crazy, a real nut job . . . I faced great pressure 

because of Russia. That’s taken off.’’; 

Whereas, on May 12, 2017, President Trump tweeted, 

‘‘James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of 

our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!’’; 

Whereas, on June 22, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘With 

all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I 

have no idea . . . whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings 

of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not 

make, and do not have, any such recordings’’; 

Whereas, on March 4, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ 

in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. 

This is McCarthyism!’’ and, ‘‘How low has President 


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Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred 

election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) 

guy!’’; 

Whereas, on March 20, 2017, at a hearing of the Permanent 

Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives, both FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers both denied 

there was any information supporting President Trump’s 

allegation that President Obama had wiretapped President Trump; 

Whereas, on May 10, 2017, while hosting Russian Foreign 

Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the 

United States Sergey Kislyak at the White House, President Trump revealed highly classified ‘‘code-word’’ level 

information to Ambassador Kislyak, concerning information from a United States intelligence partner; 

Whereas President Trump prohibited American press from 

witnessing his May 10, 2017, meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to 

the United States Sergey Kislyak at the White House, 

but allowed a Russian photographer to have access; 

Whereas, on April 29, 2017, while speaking by telephone with 

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, President Trump 

revealed that the United States had two nuclear submarines near North Korea; 

Whereas, in February 2017, while President Trump hosted 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago 

Club, President Trump discussed a ballistic missile test 

by North Korea in an unsecured dining terrace in view 

of club dining patrons; 


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Whereas President Trump has appointed his son-in-law, 

Jared Kushner, to serve as an envoy to foreign leaders, 

despite having no diplomatic experience; 

Whereas United States foreign policy has long been based on 

both our Nation’s interest as well as our values, including 

democracy, freedom of the press, and promotion of 

human rights; 

Whereas, on April 3, 2017, when speaking about Egyptian 

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, President Trump said, 

‘‘We agreed on so many things. I just want to let everybody know, in case there was any doubt, that we are very 

much behind President al-Sisi. He’s done a fantastic job 

in a very difficult situation.’’; 

Whereas President al-Sisi rose to power in a coup, and in his 

country antigovernment protests have been banned, freedom of press and freedom of religion have been repressed, some independent human rights groups have 

been banned, and it has been estimated that 60,000 political prisoners have been detained; 

Whereas, on April 29, 2017, President Trump invited Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to visit him at the 

White House, despite the fact that Duterte has been accused of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects; 

Whereas, on March 17, 2017, President Trump refused to 

shake German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand in an 

Oval Office meeting; 

Whereas, on May 25, 2017, President Trump pushed aside 

Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic in order to 

move to the front of a group of NATO leaders; 

Whereas President Trump has been slow to fill critical diplomatic posts including the United States Ambassadors to 


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Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and other State 

Department positions that are vital to our Nation’s security; 

Whereas, on January 27, 2017, President Trump issued an 

Executive order that banned nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States 

for at least 90 days, banned admission of all refugees for 

four months, indefinitely blocked refugees from Syria, 

and contained language prioritizing the admission of nonMuslims from majority Muslim nations; 

Whereas, on January 31, 2017, Homeland Security Secretary 

John Kelly said, ‘‘This is not a travel ban . . . This is 

not—I repeat, not—a ban on Muslims . . .’’; 

Whereas, on January 31, 2017, White House Press Secretary 

Sean Spicer said, ‘‘First of all, it’s not a travel ban.’’; 

Whereas, on February 3, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge 

James Robart in the State of Washington blocked implementation of the travel ban nationwide; 

Whereas, on February 9, 2017, a three-judge panel of the 

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against 

reinstating the travel ban; 

Whereas, on March 6, 2017, President Trump issued a revised Executive order that removed Iraq from the list of 

nations from which immigration would be temporarily 

banned, and no longer contained language indefinitely 

banning Syrian refugees or calling for prioritized admission for non-Muslims fleeing majority Muslim nations; 

Whereas, on March 15, 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson in the State of Hawaii blocked implementation of President Trump’s revised Executive order, noting 

that when Mr. Trump was asked during the Presidential 


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campaign if he was pulling back from a ‘‘Muslim ban’’, 

Mr. Trump said, ‘‘I don’t think it’s a rollback. In fact, 

you could say it’s an expansion. I’m looking now at territories. People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can’t use the word Muslim. Remember this. 

And I’m okay with that, because I’m talking about territory instead of Muslim.’’; 

Whereas Judge Watson also noted that Senior White House 

Advisor Stephen Miller had told Fox News that the revised Executive order would have the ‘‘same basic policy 

outcome for the country’’, and that Rudolph Giuliani had 

explained the origin of the original Executive order by 

saying, ‘‘When [Mr. Trump] first announced it, he said 

‘Muslim ban.’ He called me up. He said, ‘Put a commission together. Show me the right way to do it legally.’ ’’; 

Whereas, on May 25, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for 

the Fourth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction blocking President Trump’s revised Executive order, saying it 

‘‘drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.’’; 

Whereas, on June 5, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘People, the lawyers and courts can call it whatever they 

want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, 

a TRAVEL BAN!’’; 

Whereas, on June 26, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed 

to hear a challenge by the Trump administration to rulings blocking full implementation of the President’s revised Executive order; 

Whereas, on June 29, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘I 

heard poorly rated @MorninglJoe speaks badly of me 

(don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy 


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Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came . . . to Mar-a-Lago 

3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted 

on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. 

I said no!’’; 

Whereas, in a February 4, 2017, tweet, President Trump referred to a Federal judge with whom he disagreed as a 

‘‘so-called judge’’; 

Whereas, in a May 9, 2017, President Trump referred to the 

United States Senate Minority Leader as ‘‘Cryin’ Chuck 

Schumer’’ in a tweet; 

Whereas, on April 28, 2017, President Trump referred to 

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren as ‘‘Pocahontas’’ in a speech to the National Rifle Association; 

Whereas President Trump has called press reports, ‘‘fake 

news’’ and in some instances his administration has prohibited video recordings of White House press briefings; 

Whereas President Trump used Twitter to circulate a video 

of him violently wrestling a man covered by a CNN logo, 

which, according to the Reporters Committee on Freedom 

of the Press, was a ‘‘threat of physical violence against 

journalists . . . [and] beneath the office of the presidency.’’; 

Whereas free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy; 

Whereas, on January 6, 2017, the Office of the Director of 

National Intelligence detailed Russian efforts to influence 

the 2016 Presidential election, stating, ‘‘We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. 

Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the U.S. 

democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and 


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harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed 

a clear preference for President-elect Trump.’’; 

Whereas President Trump has refused to acknowledge, unequivocally, that Russia meddled in the 2016 Presidential 

election, saying, instead, things like ‘‘I think it very well 

could be Russia but I think it could very well have been 

other countries . . . I think a lot of people interfere.’’; 

Whereas, on June 6, 2017, while on foreign soil, President 

Trump criticized former President Obama, saying, ‘‘The 

thing I have to mention is that Barack Obama when he 

was President found out about this in terms of if it were 

Russia, found out about it in August, now the election 

was in November, that’s a lot of time he did nothing 

about it. Why did he do nothing about it? He was told 

it was Russia by the CIA as I understand it . . . I think 

what happened was that he thought that Hillary Clinton 

was going to win the election and he said let’s not do 

anything about it.’’; 

Whereas President Obama issued repeated warnings to Russian officials, including a direct warning to Russian 

President Vladimir Putin, approved a cyberwarfare campaign against Russia, and expelled Russian diplomats 

from the United States; 

Whereas, on July 9, 2017, President Trump tweeted, ‘‘Putin 

& I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security 

unit so that election hacking, & many other negative 

things, will be guarded . . .’’; 

Whereas President Trump has not empaneled a commission 

to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 United 

States Presidential election, but has empaneled a comVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:04 Jul 20, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR456.IH HR456

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mission to investigate unfounded claims that there were 

as many as 5,000,000 fraudulent votes in the United 

States Presidential election, which President Trump has 

claimed cost him the popular vote; 

Whereas, on June 29, 2017, the United States Senate passed 

S. 722, the Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act 

of 2017, which included sanctions on Russia, by a vote 

of 98–2; 

Whereas President Trump’s administration has sought 

changes to S. 722 to make it more friendly to Russia; 

Whereas, on June 1, 2017, President Trump pulled out of 

the Paris Climate Agreement, a historic pact among 

nearly 200 parties, including Russia and China, to reduce 

emissions that raise global temperatures, put lives and 

property at risk, and imperil the planet upon which we 

live, and, Syria and Nicaragua were the only nations that 

did not sign the Paris Agreement, and Nicaragua objected because it felt the agreement did not go far 

enough; 

Whereas 97 percent of climate scientists agree that human 

activity has impacted climate change; 

Whereas, on May 28, 2017, after transatlantic meetings, German Chancellor Angela Merkel concluded that President 

Trump was not the kind of traditionally reliable partner 

for Germany and Europe on whom they have been able 

to depend in the past, saying that traditional alliances 

were no longer as steadfast. Merkel stated that Europe 

should, ‘‘really take our fate into our own hands . . .’’ 

and said, ‘‘The times in which we could rely fully on others—they are somewhat over.’’; 


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Whereas President Trump’s opposition to the Paris Climate 

Agreement put the United States at odds on climate 

change with the rest of the G–20 at its July 2017 meeting in Hamburg, Germany; 

Whereas President Trump failed to secure an international 

agreement at the July 2017 G–20 meeting to counter the 

threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea; 

Whereas President Trump’s first cabinet appointments had 

the smallest percentage of women and nonwhites combined than any since President Reagan; 

Whereas the gender pay gap at President Trump’s White 

House is more than double the national pay gap; 

Whereas, on January 21, 2017, President Trump’s spokesperson said, ‘‘Photographs of the inaugural proceedings 

were intentionally framed in a way, in one particular 

Tweet, to minimize the enormous support that had gathered on the National Mall . . . That was the largest audience to witness an inauguration, period. Both in person 

and around the globe.’’; 

Whereas in support of his assertion about the inaugural 

crowd size, President Trump’s spokesperson said, ‘‘We 

know that 420,000 people used DC Metro public transit 

yesterday, which compares to 317,000 that it used for 

President Obama’s last inaugural’’, but transit officials 

said that 570,557 riders used the transit system on January 20, 2017, as compared with 1.1 million trips the 

day of President Obama’s first inauguration and 782,000 

trips the day of President Obama’s second inauguration; 

Whereas, on February 16, 2017, President Trump said his 

2016 election victory was, ‘‘the biggest electoral college 

win since Ronald Reagan’’; 


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Whereas Donald J. Trump received 304 electoral votes in 

2016; 

Whereas Barrack Obama received 332 electoral votes in 

2012, and 365 electoral votes in 2008; 

Whereas Bill Clinton received 379 electoral votes in 1996, 

and 370 electoral votes in 1992; 

Whereas George H. W. Bush received 426 electoral votes in 

1988; and 

Whereas when President Trump was presented with facts 

about the size of his predecessors’ electoral victory margins at a press conference on February 16, 2017, he responded, ‘‘I don’t know, I was given that information. I 

actually, I’ve seen that information around.’’: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) based on the conduct described in the pre4 amble, the House of Representatives has no con5 fidence that President Trump is faithfully executing 

6 the office of President of the United States; and 

7 (2) President Trump should— 

8 (A) release his tax returns; 

9 (B) place his private business assets in a 

10 blind trust or to divest from them; 

11 (C) donate to the United States Treasury, 

12 as he promised, any personal profit he has 

13 made from foreign patronage of hotels in which 

14 he has an ownership interest; 


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1 (D) refrain from taking any action that re2 sults in taxpayer money being spent on goods 

3 or services from businesses in which he has an 

4 ownership interest, such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm 

5 Beach, Florida, the Trump National Golf Club 

6 in Bedminster, New Jersey, and the Trump Na7 tional Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia; 

8 (E) seek congressional consent for any and 

9 all emoluments he has received from foreign 

10 countries; 

11 (F) refrain from using Twitter inappropri12 ately, including refraining from posting com13 ments that could adversely impact United 

14 States foreign policy; 

15 (G) support the First Amendment, support 

16 freedom of the press, refrain from calling re17 porting ‘‘fake news’’, refrain from posting video 

18 of himself wrestling with a press logo, and stop 

19 limiting full electronic press access to White 

20 House press briefings; 

21 (H) promote democracy, freedom of the 

22 press, and human rights in foreign policy; 

23 (I) unequivocally acknowledge that Russia 

24 interfered in the 2016 United States Presi25 dential election, and work to protect our elecVerDate Sep 11 2014 07:04 Jul 20, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR456.IH HR456

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1 toral process from any future foreign inter2 ference; 

3 (J) refuse any offer to form any kind of 

4 cybersecurity unit with the Russian Government 

5 to purportedly protect the United States from 

6 election hacking; 

7 (K) respect the independence of our Na8 tion’s judicial branch; 

9 (L) respect Members of Congress and re10 frain from using derogatory nicknames for 

11 them; and 

12 (M) conduct United States foreign policy 

13 in a manner that reflects the United States tra14 ditional role as leader of the free world. 

Æ 


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