Press Releases

As Trump Continues to Flagrantly Violate Foreign Emoluments Clause, Nadler, Blumenthal & Congressional Plaintiffs' Lawsuit Moves Forward

Washington, October 22, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and more than two hundred Members of Congress filed a brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in their ongoing legal action to hold President Trump accountable for increasingly flagrant violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. Last week, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney announced that President Trump had to decided to hold next year’s G7 summit at his resort in Doral, Florida in what would have been a textbook violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. 

As the Members of Congress’ brief states, “Increasingly brazen, President Trump just last week announced that he was awarding the next G7 summit to his resort in Doral, Florida, only to reverse course after a public outcry—in the aftermath, disparaging ‘you people with this phony Emoluments Clause.’” The full text of the brief is available here.

“Although President Trump may have been forced to change his plans to hold the G7 summit at his Miami resort, with each passing day, he continues to undermine the safety and security of our nation by exploiting his office to enrich himself and his family,” said Nadler. “There is nothing ‘phony’ about the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and the President knows this. No one is above the law. We will continue to hold Trump accountable for this abuse of power.”

“The President may have decided, for now, not to go ahead with his plan to hold the G7 summit at his Doral resort, but the fact that he even thought about it, underscores once again that he has zero regard for the Foreign Emoluments Clause,” Blumenthal said. “That’s why our lawsuit to hold the President accountable to the Constitution is so important. As this brief notes, the President’s attempt to award the G7 summit to his Doral resort shows how increasingly brazen he’s becoming.”  

“For almost three years now, President Trump has been flagrantly violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause, our Constitution’s chief bulwark against the foreign corruption of our nation’s leaders. As if that weren’t bad enough, he’s now disparaging this critical anti-corruption provision as this “phony Emoluments Clause.”  The Emoluments Clause is real, as is the President’s obligation to comply with it,” said Brianne Gorod, Chief Counsel with the Constitutional Accountability Center. “The American people shouldn’t have to wonder whether the President is acting with undivided loyalty when he makes critically important foreign policy and national security decisions. Now more than ever, it’s of the utmost importance that the courts hold the President accountable to the Constitution and make clear that no one, including the President, is above the law.”