Politics Justice Department seeks to halt lawsuit involving President Trump’s business

Somerville · Aug 17, 2018

FAKE NEWS!!!!! It must be fake because Trump would never, ever profit from businesses which he gave to his kids - amirite?

Justice Department seeks to halt lawsuit involving President Trump’s business

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to halt proceedings in a lawsuit involving President Trump’s private business, arguing that allowing the case to go forward would “be a distraction to the President’s performance of his constitutional duties.”

The lawsuit, filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia, centers on whether Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign and state governments while serving as president.
(. . .)
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) and Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) filed the case last year, arguing that by accepting business from foreign governments and state officials, particularly at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, Trump was violating the Constitution’s clauses barring elected officials from receiving emoluments — meaning gifts or payments — from foreign or state governments.
(. . .)
Part of the case earlier this year hinged on the definition of the term emoluments, as the clauses have been rarely tested in the courts. In July, Messitte rejected the Justice Department’s interpretation that the Constitution’s framers meant to bar presidents from taking bribes and outright gifts. Messitte ruled that the word encompassed a bigger universe of payments, including transactions conducted at fair-market value.

Why does the president still have control of his businesses? All other presidents and vice-presidents have either sold all of their business holdings or placed them in blind trusts - giving control to the Trump kids IS NOT equivalent to placing holdings in a blind trust.

Allowing the lawsuit to proceed would “be a distraction to the President’s performance of his constitutional duties.” The man has been on one of his golf courses for almost one-fourth of his days in office. To many of us, it doesn't look like DJT really gives a **** about "constitutional duties". He seems to care more about paying back his big money donors and increasing profits for his businesses.

Captain Adverse · Aug 17, 2018

Somerville said:
FAKE NEWS!!!!! It must be fake because Trump would never, ever profit from businesses which he gave to his kids - amirite?

Why does the president still have control of his businesses? All other presidents and vice-presidents have either sold all of their business holdings or placed them in blind trusts - giving control to the Trump kids IS NOT equivalent to placing holdings in a blind trust...

Not true:

It’s generally acknowledged that the first American elected official to use a blind trust was President Lyndon Johnson, who set one up when he assumed the presidency so that he and his wife, Lady Bird, could hold onto their Texas television station—KTBC, in Austin—and yet not be subject to the inevitable conflicts of interest that would result from holding an asset so heavily regulated by the federal government.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2012/07/mitt-romney-age-old-ruse-blind-trust

Prior to Johnson Presidents either maintained direct control over their own businesses and assets, allowed them to be controlled by family or other overseers, or perhaps sold some.

Politics Justice Department seeks to halt lawsuit involving President Trump’s business

Somerville

Captain Adverse

Classical Liberal Sage