WASHINGTON -- Nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress agreed to file a lawsuit Wednesday against President Donald Trump alleging that by retaining interests in a global business empire, he has violated constitutional restrictions on taking gifts and benefits from foreign leaders.

The lead senator filing the complaint in federal district court, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Tuesday that the lawsuit has already drawn more congressional plaintiffs -- 196 -- than any legal action previously taken against a president.

No Republicans have yet joined in the lawsuit, although they will be invited to do so, Blumenthal said.

An advance copy of the legal complaint argues that those in Congress have special standing because the Constitution's "foreign emoluments clause" requires the president to obtain "the consent of Congress" before accepting any gifts.

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The legal effort is led in the House by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich. At least five congressional committees are investigating various issues related to the Trump administration.

News of the lawsuit emerged less than 24 hours after attorneys general in the District and Maryland, both Democrats, filed suit alleging that payments to Trump violated the Constitution's anti-corruption clauses. In another lawsuit filed against Trump by business competitors, the Justice Department recently defended Trump's actions, arguing that he violated no restrictions by accepting fair-market payments for services.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night, but on Monday, spokesman Sean Spicer criticized the lawsuit filed by the two state attorneys general, saying it's "not hard to conclude that partisan politics may be one of the motivations."

The 37-page congressional complaint contends that the nation's founders were concerned that foreign powers could interfere with American affairs. The suit says the founders were particularly worried that "foreign states would give benefits and rewards to the nation's chief executive to subvert his loyalty."

As a result, they wrote the emoluments clause of the Constitution with language "both sweeping and unqualified," the lawmakers' lawsuit says.

In a response to the initial lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers argued that the framers of the Constitution never intended to prevent a president from owning a business or to ban ordinary, arms-length commercial transactions. They also contended that even if the president had violated the Constitution as his opponents allege, it is up to Congress to take action.

The obscure clause in Article I of the Constitution says that "no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under [the United States], 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." The language is interpreted as prohibiting any officeholder -- including the president -- from accepting a gift, payment or other benefit from a foreign state without the consent of Congress.

A memo prepared by the Senate plaintiff states that "these benefits include any compensation for services rendered in a private capacity such as when a foreign government throws a party at a hotel owned by a federal official."

Blumenthal, a former Connecticut attorney general, said the president's companies did business in about 20 countries but were shrouded in secrecy.

The lawsuit asks the court to enjoin the president from "accepting any benefits from foreign states without first obtaining Congressional consent."

Information for this article was contributed by Tom Hamburger and Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post and by Sharon LaFraniere of The New York Times. </s> President Donald Trump heralded a win over the “Deep State” and the Democrats after a federal appeals court dismissed a case accusing him of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses in relation to his Washington, D.C., hotel.

“Word just out that I won a big part of the Deep State and Democrat induced Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted after the court ruling.

“Unanimous decision in my favor from The United States Court of Appeals For The Fourth Circuit on the ridiculous Emoluments Case. I don’t make money, but lose a fortune for the honor of serving and doing a great job as your President (including accepting Zero salary!).”

The Democratic attorney generals for the District of Columbia and Maryland brought the case against the president, claiming that earnings from Trump International Hotel violated the Constitution’s prohibitions regarding office holders receiving financial benefits from government entities and officials, either foreign or domestic.

Article I, Section 9, Clause 8, reads in part, “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.”

Additionally, Article II, Section 1, Clause 7, provides: “The President … shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument [besides his salary] from the United States, or any of them.”

The complaint alleged by maintaining ownership of his hotel business, Trump earned “millions of dollars in payments, benefits, and other valuable consideration from foreign governments and persons acting on their behalf, as well as federal agencies and state governments.”

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that neither the District of Columbia nor the state of Maryland has the standing to bring the suit against Trump.

“The District and Maryland’s interest in enforcing the Emoluments Clauses is so attenuated and abstract that their prosecution of this case readily provokes the question of whether this action against the President is an appropriate use of the courts, which were created to resolve real cases and controversies between the parties,” Judge Paul Niemeyer, who was appointed by George H.W. Bush, wrote in the opinion.

Wednesday’s decision by the 4th Circuit halted “dozens of subpoenas issued to Trump’s businesses and government agencies for financial documents” related to Trump International Hotel, Reuters reported.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh contended the court made the wrong decision.

“The idea that the District of Columbia and Maryland are not harmed by the President’s violation of the Constitution is plain error,” they said in a joint statement.

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“We will continue to pursue our legal options to hold him accountable.”

Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow, told Reuters the ruling is a “complete victory” for his client.

“This latest effort at presidential harassment has been dismissed with prejudice,” he said.

Since taking office, Trump has donated his $400,000 yearly salary to various government agencies each quarter.

Trump has given to the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Interior and Veterans Affairs.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. </s> WASHINGTON — The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia plan to sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated the Constitution by accepting foreign money through his business empire, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The Democratic attorneys general are of Maryland and D.C.

The suit, to be filed in federal court in Maryland, will allege that Trump has violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits the president from accepting payments from foreign governments without the consent of Congress, according to the person.

It will cite not just the president’s luxury hotel in Washington, which has been at the center of concerns about conflicts of interest, but his worldwide network of hotels, golf courses and other commercial properties, the person said.

Despite a pledge to isolate himself from the business, Trump held on to his assets and placed them in a trust in his name. That arrangement means that he will benefit from the success of the business, even if he doesn’t reap the rewards until after he leaves office.

The suit will argue that Maryland the District of Columbia have been harmed by Trump’s ongoing ownership of the business. They plan to cite convention centers and other properties in Maryland and the district that compete with the Trump hotel.

In addition, the suit will say that states have standing to sue because they entered a contract, the Constitution, that prohibits the president from receiving emoluments. The suit will say that not just hotel payments but tax breaks and permits count as emoluments.

The suit being filed Monday will ask the court for an injunction blocking Trump from accepting foreign money, the person said. It will also ask for access to Trump’s personal tax returns as part of the legal process known as discovery, the person said.

A similar lawsuit was filed in January, moments after Trump was inaugurated, by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog organization.

Since then, a nonprofit restaurant group, a New York hotel and restaurant owner, and a woman who books events at hotels in Washington have joined the suit as plaintiffs.

On Friday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.

CREW is outside counsel on the lawsuit the attorneys general plan to file.

The Trump Organization has promised to take steps to address some ethics concerns. It told lawmakers that it would “track and identify” revenues received by its hotels from foreign governments, which it would then donate to the U.S. Treasury.

But in documentation sent to lawmakers this year, the company said it would be “impractical” to track everyone. That means it the business will not try to identify people who haven’t specifically identified themselves as representing a foreign government.

Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, blasted that plan.

He told the company in a letter last month that Trump should either divest his ownership or get permission from Congress to accept all sources of foreign money if it’s too difficult to identify those payments. </s> President Donald Trump is facing yet another lawsuit over the profits his far-flung business empire brings in from dealings with foreign governments.

The latest legal salvo came from nearly 200 Democratic members of the House and Senate, who joined in a suit filed early Wednesday in federal court in Washington.

It's at least the fourth pending lawsuit alleging that Trump is violating the foreign emoluments clause in the Constitution, a provision that prohibits federal officeholders from accepting financial benefits or other things of value from foreign governments without the permission of Congress.

Plans for the new suit were first reported by POLITICO last week. The lead plaintiffs in the case are Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut along with Rep, John Conyers of Michigan, long the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

The 54-page complaint targets a wide array of Trump's business ventures, from Trump Tower spaces rented to foreign governments, to "The Apprentice" re-runs aired by state-owned foreign broadcasters, to trademarks the Chinese government has granted Trump to use his brand in China for construction services, catering and clothing.

"Because Defendant is not coming to Congress and identifying the emoluments he wishes to accept, the American people will have no way of knowing whether his actions as President reflect only his beliefs about what is best for the country, or whether they are partly motivated by personal financial considerations," the suit says.

The new suit was filed just two days after the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and Maryland filed a joint suit in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, making similar arguments on behalf of the people of those jurisdictions. In addition, a pair of lawsuit were filed in New York last year challenging the legality of Trump's business dealings with foreign entities.

The Justice Department moved to toss out one of the New York cases last week, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring such a suit and that routine business transactions with foreign governments are not covered by the foreign emoluments language in the Constitution.

At a press conference early this year, a private lawyer for Trump publicly made a similar argument. However, Trump also pledged to set up a process to donate to the U.S. Treasury profits his hotels and other businesses earn from foreign governments.

The Trump Organization, which oversees Trump's business holdings, has released a flyer indicating that it plans to flag some business with foreign governments and track the profits from that activity. However, the Trump businesses do not plan to try to figure out if foreign individuals who do business at Trump properties are actually representatives of foreign governments, the flyer said.

The lawmakers are represented in the new suit by a liberal legal non-profit, the Constitutional Accountability Center. </s> July 10 (UPI) -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by the attorneys general of Washington, D.C., and Maryland accusing President Donald Trump of violating emoluments clauses.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the two attorneys general didn't prove their case, which argued that Trump violated the Constitution by accepting money from domestic and foreign governments through his hotels and other businesses.

The panel also said the attorneys general couldn't show that Trump's ownership of the hotels created competition with other similar businesses like convention centers.

"The District and Maryland's interest in enforcing the Emoluments Clauses is so attenuated and abstract that their prosecution of this case readily provokes the question of whether this action against the president is an appropriate use of the courts, which were created to resolve real cases and controversies between the parties," Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote in the opinion.

The three-judge panel ordered the lower court to dismiss the lawsuit.

The suit said the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., diverts customers away from businesses the District of Columbia and Maryland own, license or tax, causing those governments direct financial harm. The Trump International Hotel competes with convention facilities owned by the city's government, as well as with a resort in Prince George's County that generates tax revenue for Maryland.

The suit contended it wasn't clear whether Trump is making decisions in the country's best interest or out of "self-interested motivations grounded in the international and domestic business dealings in which President Trump's personal fortune is at stake."

Trump increases business from foreign diplomats and others doing business at his family's hotels and the restaurants, the suit alleged.

This wasn't the only lawsuit accusing Trump of violating the emoluments clause. A group of some 200 Democrats sued him on similar grounds. On Tuesday, they issued dozens of subpoenas seeking documents from Trump's private businesses. </s> The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia plan to sue President Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated the Constitution by accepting foreign money through his business empire, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The attorneys general of Maryland and D.C., both Democrats, have scheduled a news conference for noon ET in Washington.

The suit, to be filed in federal court in Maryland, will allege that Trump has violated the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, which prohibits the president from accepting payments from foreign governments without the consent of Congress, according to the person.

It will cite not just the president’s luxury hotel in Washington, which has been at the center of concerns about conflicts of interest, but his worldwide network of hotels, golf courses and other commercial properties, the person said.

The suit will ask the court for an injunction blocking Trump from accepting foreign money, the person said. It will also ask for access to Trump’s personal tax returns as part of the legal process known as discovery, the person said.

A similar was filed in January, moments after Trump was inaugurated, by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog organization.

Since then, a nonprofit restaurant group, a New York hotel and restaurant owner, and a woman who books events at hotels in Washington have joined the suit as plantiffs.

On Friday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.

CREW is outside counsel on the lawsuit the attorneys general plan to file. </s> President Trump found himself, once again, at the receiving end of a high-profile lawsuit involving his business dealings on Monday. The Attorneys General of both the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a suit claiming the Present was in violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause, which states that an office holder cannot receive payments or gifts from a foreign power.

Start the conversation, or Read more at NewsBusters.org. </s> The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday granted President Donald Trump a victory, dismissing a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia accusing the president of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

At the center of the lawsuit was whether the president’s continued ownership of his businesses, including a hotel in the nation’s capital, allowed him to make money from foreign and domestic interests in violation of the Constitution.
• Emoluments Suit Vs. Trump Now Personal As Well As Official

The three-judge panel voted unanimously in Trump’s favor, saying the District and Maryland lack standing to bring the suit against the president both in his official capacity and as an individual.

The lawsuit alleged Trump was benefiting and continued to benefit from foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Georgia and Kuwait, holding events at the Trump International Hotel, among other properties.

As a result, the District and Maryland said facilities in which they have a public interest, including the Montgomery County Conference Center, D.C. Armory and Walter E. Washington Convention Center, were at a competitive disadvantage.

The court rejected claims that governments or groups trying to curry favor with the president would patronize his businesses, saying there was also a possibility that some officials would avoid Trump’s properties because he owned them.

“Even if government officials were patronizing the Hotel to curry the President’s favor, there is no reason to conclude that they would cease doing so were the President enjoined from receiving income from the Hotel,” the court said in its decision.

Trump claimed victory in a pair of tweets late Wednesday morning, calling the suit “ridiculous” and “a big part of the Deep State and Democrat induced Witch Hunt.”

“I don’t make money, but lose a fortune for the honor of serving and doing a great job as your President,” Trump tweeted.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said he felt the court made the wrong decision, releasing a statement reading:

“We think that this panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals got it wrong. Although the court described a litany of ways in which this case is unique, it failed to acknowledge the most extraordinary circumstance of all: President Trump is brazenly profiting from the Office of the President in ways that no other President in history ever imagined and that the founders expressly sought—in the Constitution—to prohibit. We have not and will not abandon our efforts to hold President Trump accountable for violating the Nation’s original anti-corruption laws. We believe that the federal trial judge correctly decided that the plaintiffs have standing — and that discovery should go forward on President Trump’s receipt of emoluments. All Americans suffer when our chief executive is vulnerable to corrupt foreign influence. The idea that the District of Columbia and Maryland are not harmed by the President’s violation of the Constitution is plain error. We will continue to pursue our legal options to hold him accountable.” </s> WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats began issuing dozens of subpoenas Monday for financial records and other documents from President Donald Trump's private entities as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging that his businesses violate the Constitution's ban on gifts or payments from foreign governments.

The demands for detailed information about the president's closely held finances came on the same day the Trump administration asked an appeals court in Washington to halt the lawsuit and block the subpoenas, saying the case is based on "novel and flawed constitutional premises."

Brought by more than 200 Democrats in Congress, the emoluments lawsuit is one of several legal battles over access to the inner workings of Trump's businesses and, more broadly, the balance of power between lawmakers and the president.

"We are seeking a targeted set of documents to obtain the information that we need to ensure that the President can no longer shirk his constitutional responsibility," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement.

The 37 subpoenas target information from a wide array of Trump's businesses, including Trump Tower, his hotels in New York and Washington, and his Mar-a-Lago Club in south Florida, according to the Constitutional Accountability Center, the legal group representing the Democrats in the case.

The plaintiffs also are seeking information about trademarks granted to Trump's companies by foreign governments since he entered office and any pending applications for foreign trademarks. Additional subpoenas seek information on tax returns from the president's companies and the trust where he keeps his businesses while in office.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment regarding the subpoenas.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in late June rejected Trump's request to stop the lawsuit and ordered the two parties to begin the process of requesting records and other information as part of a three-month discovery period ending Sept. 27.

In its court filing Monday, the Trump administration officially asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to issue an order to dismiss the case or at least to put the lawsuit and subpoenas on hold pending review. Justice Department lawyers said Sullivan had treated the case "as a run-of-the-mill commercial dispute" and "ignored the unique separation-of-powers concerns posed by discovery in a case against the President in his official capacity."

In a separate "emoluments" case brought by the attorneys general of D.C. and Maryland, Justice Department lawyers have succeeded in temporarily blocking subpoenas for financial records and other documents related to Trump's D.C. hotel.

The congressional emoluments case, led by Blumenthal and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., extends beyond the hotel and provides a potential new avenue for investigators to gain access to a broader array of Trump's finances.

Unlike past presidents, Trump has retained ownership of his private businesses and refused to release his tax returns.

The emoluments provision - barring payments or gifts from foreign governments without prior approval from Congress - was designed to prevent undue influence over the nation's leaders. Attorneys for the lawmakers say Trump is violating the ban when his businesses accept payments and other benefits from foreign governments.

Democrats are seeking information related to not only the president's hotels but to office buildings, trademarks and the trust in which Trump is storing his business interests while he is in office.

Three properties - the two hotels and Mar-a-Lago - have hosted foreign governments or large foreign delegations since Trump entered office. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has booked blocks of rooms at both hotels, and the D.C. hotel has hosted the governments of Kuwait, Bahrain and Malaysia, among others.

Trump Organization officials say that to avoid benefiting from any impropriety, they do not market the hotels to foreign governments and that when embassies or delegations book space, the company donates the profits to the U.S. treasury.

For example, after an Iraqi sheikh urging the U.S. to overthrow Iran's government stayed 26 nights at the D.C. hotel, the company says it donated the profits from his stay. In total, the company donated $191,538 at the end of last year and $151,470 for the previous year, though it did not break down those amounts.

There is less known about foreign governments' involvement in the four office properties that are subject of the plaintiffs' subpoenas.

Dating to before Trump's presidency, foreign diplomats have leased space in Trump World Tower, near the United Nations Nations headquarters in New York.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a state-owned Chinese bank, has leased space on the 20th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan since 2008. The bank's lease is worth close to $2 million annually, according to industry estimates and a bank filing.

Trump owns a minority stake in two other office buildings, in San Francisco and New York, that are not named for him and are managed by a non-Trump company.

The Chinese government has also granted approvals to Trump family trademarks, including preliminary approval for 38 new trademarks for hotels, golf courses and other businesses, according to The Associated Press. The plaintiffs' group issued a statement Monday saying that in addition to those approvals, "there are almost certainly many more that are not yet known about."

In court filings, the nonprofit Constitutional Accountability Center has stressed how difficult it is for Congress or the public to understand the president's business dealings without the court allowing its case to proceed.

"While it is well known that (the president's) business empire is vast and global, the exact nature of his holdings and the benefits he receives from them remain unclear," the nonprofit said in filings. Because the president has not released his tax returns, "the complicated interconnection between the hundreds of discrete business entities and shell companies in which he owns an interest makes it impossible to determine the full scope of the benefits he is currently accepting from foreign states."
Nearly 200 members of the Democratic Party in the United States Congress file a lawsuit in the federal court, claiming that U.S. President Trump profits from business dealings with foreign governments, in violation of the United States Constitution’s emolument clauses. This is the third such suit of its kind, following on the heels of the most recent suit by the Attorneys General of Maryland and the District of Columbia.