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Undated: Emolument ... profit, salary, or fees from office or employment; compensation for services:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/emolument
Undated: The emoluments clause, also called the foreign emoluments clause, is a provision of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8) that generally prohibits federal officeholders from receiving any gift, payment, or other thing of value from a foreign state or its rulers, officers, or representatives.
The plain purpose of the foreign emoluments clause was to ensure that the country’s leaders would not be improperly influenced, even unconsciously, through gift giving, then a common and generally corrupt practice among European rulers and diplomats.
https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-emoluments-clause
-- 2017 --
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October 17: The court challenge begins: Is Trump taking unconstitutional emoluments?
On Wednesday morning, a federal judge in Manhattan will hear preliminary arguments in a case that claims President Trump is violating the Constitution's ban on accepting foreign payments, or emoluments.
Here is what is at stake: The Founding Fathers wrote a clause into the Constitution saying U.S. officials cannot accept "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title" from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. Trump's critics say that by refusing to sell off his global businesses, the president is failing to uphold the Constitution.
DOJ uses a narrower definition — just as Trump's lawyer, Sheri Dillon, did in January. She told reporters then, "No one would have thought that when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument. Instead, it would have been thought of as a value-for-value exchange; not a gift, not a title, and not an emolument."
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Vermont Law School professor Jennifer Taub said that if the case fails, it would set a "terrible precedent."
Taub, who helped to organize a campaign last winter for disclosure of Trump's tax returns, said, "We cannot have a representative democracy if the president takes office with the purpose of personal gain and essentially influence-peddling."
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/10/17/npr-?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsY7FkKD13gIVQ57ACh3GhA8UEAAYASAAEgIqEvD_BwE
-- 2018 --
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February 13: Trump's Biggest Potential Conflict Of Interest Is Hiding In Plain Sight
The largest American office of China's largest bank sits on the 20th floor of Trump Tower, six levels below the desk where Donald Trump built an empire and wrested a presidency. It's hard to get a glimpse inside. There do not appear to be any public photos of the office, the bank doesn't welcome visitors, and a man guards the elevators downstairs--one of the perks of forking over an estimated $2 million a year for the space.
Trump Tower officially lists the tenant as the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, but make no mistake who's paying the rent: the Chinese government, which owns a majority of the company.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/02/13/trump-conflicts-of-interest-tenants-donald-business-organization-real-estate-assets-pay/#7e3f0d848f97
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April 6:
[Another way that Trump could be in deep legal trouble? The anti-bribery emoluments clauses of the Constitution.]
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These two cases are critical. The president’s business raises huge risks of conflicts of interest from which the founding fathers tried to protect the nation. The very first thing Mr. Trump did upon assuming office of the Presidency was swear that he would uphold the Constitution. A key element of upholding the Constitution is abiding by it — including the two emoluments clauses.
https://www.shondaland.com/act/a19696522/trump-emoluments-clause-foreign-domestic-lawsuits/
May 15: Rep. Adam Schiff: Chinese deal linked to Trump properties violates emoluments clause ... “I certainly view this as a violation of the emoluments clause,” Mr. Schiff, California Democrat, said on CNN.
Mr. Trump tweeted on Sunday that he wanted federal officials to help get the Chinese phone company ZTE back into business after U.S. penalties threatened to shut the business down, according to The Hill. The Huffington Post reported that it was only 72 hours later that a Chinese company offered a $500 million loan to an Indonesia construction project associated with Mr. Trump’s company.
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“I can’t imagine China going forward with this transaction, helping a Trump branded property in Indonesia to the tune of half a billion if the president continue the sanctions on ZTE. It’s just hard to imagine,” Mr. Schiff said.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/15/adam-schiff-chinese-deal-linked-to-trump-propertie/
September 28: Judge Denies Trump’s Request to Dismiss Emoluments Lawsuit
Congressional Democrats cleared a key hurdle on Friday in their effort to sue President Trump over whether he is illegally profiting from business dealings with foreign governments, in a case that could give the lawmakers access to the Trump Organization’s finances.
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Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court in Washington ruled that the lawmakers have standing to sue Mr. Trump for accepting payments and other benefits from foreign governments without obtaining permission from Congress, which would violate the Constitution’s clause that bars federal officials from accepting gifts, or emoluments, from foreign powers without congressional approval.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/us/politics/trump-emoluments-democrats-lawsuit.html
October 28: Trump Seeks Emoluments Ruling Reversal in Democrats' Lawsuit
The President would like to appeal a ruling that allows Congressional Democrats to sue him for receiving foreign money through his businesses.
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Trump has said he stepped down from running his $3 billion empire but retained his ownership stakes, including the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which opened two blocks from the White House in October 2016 and has since become a destination for foreign dignitaries. The Trump International Hotel in Manhattan, according to the Washington Post, has hosted officials from Saudi Arabia, whose account of the recent slaying of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is now under scrutiny by Trump and other world leaders.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan denied the Justice Department’s request to toss the case in a ruling that didn’t address whether money flowing into Trump’s companies from foreign governments actually qualifies as emoluments. Because his ruling came at a preliminary stage of the lawsuit, Trump can’t file an appeal without the judge’s OK.
https://www.nreionline.com/finance-investment/trump-seeks-emoluments-ruling-reversal-democrats-lawsuit
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November 3: Trump emoluments case ruling opens way to financial records
Trump has been fighting multiple lawsuits that argue foreign representatives spending money at the Trump International Hotel is a violation of the constitution’s emoluments clause ... In an attempt to stop the case moving on to legal discovery – which could unearth financial records such as tax returns – justice department lawyers asked the Maryland-based US district judge Peter Messitte to put the case on hold while they appeal his decision to a higher court in Richmond, Virginia. They failed.
“This is another major win for us in this historic case,” said the District of Columbia attorney general, Karl Racine, in a statement on Friday. “Our next step is to proceed with discovery. We will soon provide the court a new schedule to begin the process of getting information about how President Trump is profiting from the presidency.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/03/trump-emoluments-case-ruling-financial-records-tax-returns
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December 3: Subpoenas Coming Soon In Trump Emoluments Lawsuit
U.S. District Court Judge Peter J. Messitte gave the order for discovery in the case to proceed to D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, who have accused Trump of illegally profiting off the presidency. The list of subpoena targets will be released on Tuesday.
https://www.npr.org/2018/12/03/673056131/subpoenas-coming-soon-in-trump-emoluments-lawsuit
December 21: Donald Trump’s continued support for Saudi Arabia even after a reported CIA finding that its crown prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi bolsters a lawsuit over the president’s financial dealings with foreign governments, according to the attorney general for Washington, D.C.
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The District of Columbia’s AG, Karl Racine, together with his Maryland counterpart, Brian Frosh, accuse Trump in the lawsuit of violating the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clauses by profiting from his presidency. To prevent the corruption of policymaking, the rules forbid presidents to take payments of any kind from foreign or domestic sovereigns.
The two Democrats claim the president is trampling on the rarely tested restrictions by allowing the Trump Organization’s luxury Washington hotel to do business with a host of foreign powers, including Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
“People shouldn’t have to worry that we’re going soft on Jamal Khashoggi’s murderers because the president has a financial interest and financial relationship with them,” Racine said in an interview during a meeting of the Democratic Attorneys General Association in Washington this month.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-21/trump-s-stand-on-saudi-murder-boosts-emoluments-lawsuit-ags-say
-- 2019 --
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January 16: Federal Watchdog Finds Government Ignored Emoluments Clause With Trump Hotel
Officials leasing the Old Post Office Building for the Trump International Hotel in Washington improperly ignored the Constitution's anti-corruption clauses when they continued to lease the government property to President Trump even after he won the White House, according to an internal federal government watchdog.
The Inspector General for the General Services Administration, the agency that leased the building to Trump in 2013, said in a report published Wednesday that agency lawyers decided to ignore the constitutional issues when they reviewed the lease after Trump won the 2016 election.
"The GSA Office of General Counsel recognized that the President's business interest in the lease raised issues under the U.S. Constitution that might cause a breach of the lease, yet chose not to address those issues," said Inspector General Carol F. Ochoa. "As a result, GSA foreclosed an opportunity for an early resolution of these issues and instead certified compliance with a lease that is under a constitutional cloud."
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/685977471/federal-watchdog-finds-government-ignored-emoluments-clause-with-trump-hotel?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20190116&utm_campaign=breakingnews&utm_term=nprnews
May 26: The President of the United States is erratic, illiterate, and doesn’t want to know what he doesn’t know. The President has alienated former allies, befriended or courted murderous dictators, and has repeatedly brought the country to the brink of nuclear confrontation. The President lies constantly, knows that he is lying, and demands that Administration officials lie for him, and often they do. The President has waged war on the institutions of government, overseeing the gutting of the State Department and the destruction of other federal agencies by their own leaders, and effectively shut off media access to the Pentagon, the State Department, and the White House. The President has acted to thwart oversight of the Administration by other branches of government. The President has never made a secret of despising the government itself: he has called it a “swamp” and gleefully shut it down for thirty-five days, during a temper tantrum. The President has not only failed to divest himself of his businesses but has installed his children in and near the White House, openly using his office for personal financial gain. The President has debased political culture and language, using his bully pulpit to spew lies, hate, and personal insults
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-nancy-pelosis-tactics-affirm-the-trumpian-style-of-politics
-- 2020 --
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