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Trump’s Business Dealings Violate Constitution, Attorneys General Say

VCU CNS | March 20, 2019

Topics: Attorneys General, Brian Frosh, Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jamal Khashoggi, Karl Racine, Trump hotels, US Constitution

The Attorneys General of Maryland and DC say President Trump has repeatedly violated the Constitution with his business dealings. And they’re suing him for it.

Flanked by U.S. flags, two attorneys general argued Tuesday that President Donald Trump is violating the constitutional ban against government officials accepting gifts or favors.

Attorneys General Karl Racine of the District of Columbia and Brian Frosh of Maryland — both Democrats — made that assertion at a press conference regarding the latest chapter in an ongoing legal battle between the two jurisdictions and Trump.

In mid-2017, D.C. and Maryland sued Trump, alleging that the president has violated the emolument clauses of the U.S. Constitution as a result of his domestic and foreign business dealings through the Trump Organization. The case was heard Tuesday by a panel of three judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The Department of Justice continues to take the position that President Trump is above the law and that somehow, the Constitution’s anti-corruption law should not apply to him,” Racine said.

The suit involves two clauses in the U.S. Constitution:

  • The Domestic Emoluments Clause states that the president cannot profit domestically in business dealings aside from his salary, currently $400,000 per year.
  • The Title of Nobility Clause states that the federal government cannot distribute titles of nobility and that no government official can “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind, whatever” from any foreign country without the approval of Congress.

“He’s trying to negotiate the terms of the Constitution,” Frosh said. “We have the right to have the president put our interests first and it appears that he’s not doing that, he’s putting his financial interests first.”

Racine pointed to the “horrific killing” of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, widely reported to have been orchestrated by the Saudi leadership.

“We now as Americans have to ask ourselves whether the administration’s reaction to that horrific murder was for valid diplomatic reasons, or whether it’s because the president of the United States has a financial interest that he is seeking to exploit and preserve,” Racine said.

Frosh said any payment to the Trump Organization from a foreign entity would be proof of a constitutional violation.

“The Domestic Emoluments Clause says that he only gets his salary from the United States and no other emolument,” Frosh said.

He cited the Trump International Hotel Washington, where foreign dignitaries and other guests have stayed, as problematic. The hotel is located less than a mile from the White House in a building called the Old Post Office.

“Trump Post Office Hotel is itself an emolument,” Frosh said. “So he’s violating both clauses, both of them, every single day.”

Frosh said the plaintiffs “expect to prevail” in the lawsuit. They plan to pursue the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed.

The attorneys general said Trump’s business empire make it “more difficult” to deal with the emoluments clauses, “but that’s what he signed up for.”

“When he ran for president, he knew he was going to have to live with these two constitutional requirements,” Frosh said. “And maybe it’s tougher for him than it would be for me or somebody else. But he ran for president; he’s subject to the Constitution just as every other American is.”

Trump and his attorneys have argued that the lawsuit has no legal merit and that D.C. and Maryland have no authority to sue the president over money his businesses may receive from foreign interests.

“The complaint rests on a host of novel and fundamentally flawed constitutional premises, and litigating the claims would entail intrusive discovery into the president’s personal financial affairs and the official actions of his Administration,” according to a document filed in court by the U.S. Justice Department.

By Benjamin West, Capital News Service.

Why Virginians Need to Care about the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi

RVA Staff | October 18, 2018

Topics: Assassination, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Istanbul, Jamal Khashoggi, Middle East, President Trump, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, virginia, Washington Post

Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated to silence his voice as a prominent critic of Saudi Arabia. Moving to the U.S. in June 2017, after being banned by the Saudis for criticizing President Trump, Khashoggi was eventually hired by the Washington Post in September of the same year. As a journalist in the U.S., Khashoggi became a Virginia resident and a prominent commentator on the Saudi monarchy and their disastrous war in Yemen, which has left over eight million at risk of famine.

Two weeks ago the Virginia-based journalist was lured into the Saudi Arabian diplomatic consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. He was never seen again. According to Turkish intelligence reports, he was dispatched via Saudi operatives, dismembered, and then disavowed. Only after intense public outcry from the international community and media have the Saudis hinted that it was a possible “interrogation gone wrong.” Even by today’s frayed international norms, assassinating a journalist at a diplomatic consulate is dark — so very dark.

Jamal Khashoggi

While the Saudis continue to obfuscate and misdirect (in the face of U.S. silence), the Turkish government has investigated, and released intelligence reporting that shows Khashoggi was detained within minutes of entering the consulate. Officials have then said the journalist was tortured, and that his fingers and head were eventually severed from his body. The New York Times has also reported that the Saudi operatives included a “doctor of forensics,” who helped with Khashoggi’s dismemberment. 

So very dark. 

For anyone who has ever been involved in Middle East politics, this move by Saudi Arabia should come as no real surprise. They are a fascist country run by a religious monarchy. What is surprising is that the Saudis, for the first time, are truly experiencing international isolation, pressure, and condemnation. Which is also novel, since the scourge of Sunni-based international terrorism, including al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Taliban, can be linked back to their involvement, funding, and religious ideology.

Remember that time 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi? You should. 

Yet when you are the world’s leading global exporter of oil, buy copious amounts of weapons from the U.S. for use in a disastrous civil war in Yemen, and pretend to be the bulwark against Iranian regional aggression, then all things can apparently be forgiven. Except this — maybe. 

This is why the killing of Khashoggi has caused such a global uproar. Even Senators like Lindsey Graham have broken ranks with Trump and urged him to “sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia,” going so far as to say that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is at the center of this diplomatic crisis, has “gotta go.”

Global executives and CEOs have also pulled out of an economic confederate scheduled for Saudi Arabia next week. The Saudi attempt to rebrand their country’s image as a moderate desert kingdom, away from the despotic oil state it actually is, has now become impossible — not that Saudi Arabia had any real desire to ever become such a country; they just wanted the international community to think they were. 

However, brutally assassinating a journalist at a diplomatic consulate calls into question basic protections which are the foundations of global law and order. Whether they’re saying it aloud or not, political and business leaders understand that allowing this kind of behavior to go unchecked puts their own interests in danger. Especially since Trump has not signaled any willingness to side against Saudi Arabia, claiming that Khashoggi “was not an American citizen.” He’s even gone so far as to connect Saudi suspicion to the outcry over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, telling the Associate Press, “You’re guilty until proven innocent.” 

So very dark.

Instead of speaking against Saudi Arabia, the president is putting U.S. arms deals with the Saudis’ (around $4bn in 2017) ahead of human rights, press freedoms, and the protections afforded by a citizen’s diplomatic consulate. Yet the president’s concern with defense contracts and U.S. economy is little more than smoke and mirrors. 

In truth, Trump doesn’t care. His antipathy towards the press is well known; his comment that Khashoggi might have been murdered by “rogue killers” supports this. And more than once on the campaign trail, he boasted about how many personal business deals he has with the Saudis. The Washington Post also found that Crown Prince Salman’s personal delegation boosted rental revenues at Trump’s New York hotel by 13 percent – the same Salman who’s denials Trump is taking at face value. 

So very dark.

Unfortunately for the international community, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with Trump today and traveled to Saudi Arabia to address the growing crisis, is fully bound by whatever reaction Trump thinks is appropriate in the moment. The Washington Post reported yesterday that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are now looking to “[seek] a mutually agreeable explanation for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death.” All of which amounts to diplomatic and political doublespeak, allowing the Saudis’ to save face, divest responsibility, and return to business as usual.  

In his final column, Khashoggi wrote, “…the prominent Saudi writer Saleh al-Shehi wrote one of his most famous columns ever published in the Saudi press. He unfortunately is now serving an unwarranted five year prison sentence for supposed comments contrary to the Saudi establishment.” He finished this paragraph by saying, “These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence.”

For those of us concerned with anti-fascism, corruption, and how they connect to the creep of authoritarianism at a global level, Khashoggi’s words could not have proven more prescient. The U.S. (for the time being) still remains the indispensable nation that all other nations follow, warts and all. When we undermine our own fundamental values — diplomacy, press freedoms, and human rights — and exchange them in favor of a fascist religious monarchy, liberalism loses and authoritarianism wins, abroad and at home. 

Khashoggi might find it ironic that his assassination has led to the kinds of condemnation and outrage he didn’t think was possible — but only just. Early this morning, Pompeo recommended that the U.S. give Saudi a few more days to “investigate” and “let the process play out.” By then, though, there won’t be any more blood to paint over inside the consulate. 

So very dark, pitch black.

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