payments to and from
        foreign governments 

FREE NEWS LINKS

photo of U.S. Capitol Building  
      HOME 
  SEARCH

Updates & changes ongoing ....

---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.

               
Jump to:   2017;   2018;   2019;   2020; 

-- 2016 --

June 29: In covering a story, a media outlet is not finding guilt. It is simply reporting the news that [for example] a lawsuit has been filed against Mr. Trump, and ideally putting the complaint in context. Unproven allegations are just that - unproven, and should be identified that way. ...  Proof comes later, at trial. But the November election will come well before any trial. And while Mr. Trump is presumed innocent, we are permitted — no, we are obligated — to analyze [a] case’s viability ....
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-bloom/why-the-new-child-rape-ca_b_10619944.html

-- 2017 --        

Back to top


January 11: Trump Vows to Donate Hotel Profits to U.S. Treasury

His tax attorney Sheri Dillon, speaking to reporters as Trump stood alongside, asserted that the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bans acceptance of gifts from foreign leaders, does not apply to hotel guests making “value for value” payments for staying in the hotels.

“Just like with conflicts of interest, he wants to do more than what the Constitution requires,” she said. “So President-elect Trump has decided, and we are announcing today, that he is going to voluntarily donate all profits from foreign government payments made to his hotels to the United States Treasury. This way it is the American people who will profit.”

According to the Treasury Department, such donations or bequests based on “patriotism” have been permitted since 1843. “Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called 'Gifts to the United States,'" the department’s website says. “Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government.”
https://www.govexec.com/management/2017/01/trumps-vow-donate-hotel-profits-would-f/134509/

January 24: What the emoluments lawsuit against Trump is all about

An organization of top American legal scholars (including former White House lawyers) filed a lawsuit against US president Donald Trump on Monday, January 23, claiming the freshly inaugurated head of state has already violated the Constitution by allowing representatives of foreign governments to pay for accommodations in Trump International hotels.
https://qz.com/892679/what-the-emoluments-lawsuit-against-trump-is-all-about/

February 9:  A lawsuit is ... pending in federal court in New York, alleging that Mr. Trump is violating the Constitution by accepting payment from foreign governments at his hotels and golf courses around the world. It is one of dozens of lawsuits filed against him in recent weeks.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/us/politics/kellyanne-conway-ivanka-trump-ethics.html

February 9: Campaigners fear Trump resolution could hit coffers of poor countries

Move would sweep away regulations designed to prevent US extraction firms from making secret payments to access natural resources abroad
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/feb/09/trump-draft-executive-order-coffers-poor-countries-equatorial-guinea-cardin-lugar-amendment

May 11: [Regarding the number of lawsuits filed against Trump and his administration] This is not normal, and the way the courts are responding is the way I think we want the courts to respond, which is adhering to the rule of law,” said Deepak Gupta, counsel for the plaintiffs in the emoluments suit.

“What’s unusual is the amount of legal problems being generated by the administration.”

The Boston Globe reported last week that Trump has been sued 134 times in federal court since taking office, nearly three times as many as his three predecessors.
http://thehill.com/regulation/332858-lawsuits-piling-up-against-trump

Back to top


May 16: In January, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group, filed a lawsuit claiming Trump violates the [emoluments] clause because he is accepting payments from foreign governments through his business empire. ... But the federal government ruled in March that the hotel is not violating its lease, despite a clause that says no government official can be a party to it. The GSA determined that the financial trusts and legal arrangements that Trump set up to manage his businesses have ensured that he will not get any money from the hotel while he is in office.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/politics/trump-hotel-projection/index.html

May 24: Trump Failing to Track Foreign Cash at His Hotels
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-failing-track-foreign-cash-his-hotels-n764061

June 12: D.C. & Maryland AGs Sue Trump for Constitutional Violations
https://oag.dc.gov/release/dc-maryland-ags-sue-trump-constitutional

July 6: No other president in the nation’s history entered office with a business portfolio anything like Trump’s sprawling web of hotels, restaurants, loans, real estate properties, branded merchandise, licensing agreements, and more. And no president has done so little to separate himself from his private financial holdings—Trump has refused to liquidate his assets or place them in a blind trust, insisting, disingenuously, that “the president can’t have a conflict of interest.”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/here-are-the-4-lawsuits-that-could-force-trump-to-release-his-taxes/

October 17: The obscure [Emoluments] provision of the Constitution is an issue because Trump refused to sell his business holdings before the inauguration. Instead, he placed his assets in a trust and handed the reins of the Trump Organization to his two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric.

The terms of the trust make it so Trump can technically withdraw cash payments from his businesses any time he wants. He can also dissolve the trust when he leaves office -- so if his businesses do well, he'll ultimately profit.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/17/news/trump-crew-emoluments-ethics/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion

-- 2018 --

Back to top


January 11: Trump promised to donate profits from foreign governments to the Treasury. House Democrats want proof
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/11/democrats-want-proof-trump-donated-profits-from-foreign-governments.html

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.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/02/13/trump-conflicts-of-interest-tenants-donald-business-organization-real-estate-assets-pay/#2e0adcc248f9

February 24: Emoluments suit vs. Trump now personal as well as official

Attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia on Friday expanded their lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of accepting gifts from foreign and state governments, suing him not only as president but in his personal capacity as a businessman.

Legal experts say the move takes the “emoluments” clause of the Constitution into uncharted legal waters, since it has been interpreted as only applying to presidents in their official capacity.
https://www.apnews.com/9e7a82829d2d4ce58388478ae9ddfb55/Emoluments-suit-vs.-Trump-now-personal-as-well-as-official

March 12: Ivanka Trump never cut ties with the Trump Organization. That’s turned into a problem.

Ivanka Trump — a senior White House adviser who is doing everything from lobbying the Senate on tax policy to representing her father at a G20 summit of world leaders — will pull in more than $1 million a year from the family business that has continued to develop luxury resorts across the globe during the Trump presidency.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article204578309.html

April 18: Trump Org ‘Gifts’ Treasury $150K in Foreign Government ‘Emoluments’

Trump Org. donated more than $150,000 in profits to the Treasury to avoid conflict with the emoluments clause, but that's far less than they took in, according to public records.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-org-gifts-treasury-dollar150k-in-foreign-government-emoluments

May 3: President Donald Trump is asking a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss a lawsuit that argues that Trump's acceptance of payments from foreign and state governments at his Washington hotel violates the Constitution.

A private lawyer for the president wrote in court papers this week that the suit should be tossed because the president cannot be sued in the matter either as an individual or in his official capacity.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-emoluments-suit-20180503-story.html

May 10: This week, new information surfaces about payments made to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, Qatar purchases a $6.5 million apartment in New York’s Trump Tower, and a look at how much money is being spent by political insiders at President Trump’s private club in South Florida.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/2018/05/10/this-week-in-conflicts-payments-to-cohen-qatar-buys-an-apartment-in-trump-tower-and-more-political-spending-at-mar-a-lago/

Back to top


May 10: Trump wants foreign countries to pay more for U.S. drugs

President Donald Trump on Friday is expected to suggest using trade negotiations to convince foreign countries to increase what they pay for prescription drugs made in the U.S., according to sources.

Trump previously has said that lower prices paid in Canada, South Korea and a number of European countries devalue the research and development costs of producing new therapies in the U.S. He said the payment practice was akin to "global freeloading."
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20180510/NEWS/180519999

May 15: Is China Straight-Up Bribing Donald Trump?

The president suddenly softens on a Chinese business after Beijing bankrolls a Trump Organization project.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/05/is-china-straight-up-bribing-donald-trump-zte

May 24: The Trump Organization Says It's 'Not Practical' to Comply With the Emoluments Clause

The president’s business tells lawmakers it is too difficult to track all its foreign revenue in accordance with constitutional requirements, and it hasn’t asked Congress for a permission slip.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/trumps-company-isnt-tracking-all-the-money-it-gets-from-foreign-governments/527997/

June 10: Justice Department: Trump Can Take Payments From Foreign Governments

The Department of Justice is trying to persuade a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit claiming that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign governments without congressional approval.

A Friday filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan represents the first legitimate response from the Trump Administration to a number of suits that insist that the President has significant conflicts of interest within his real estate empire since taking office.
http://time.com/4805091/donald-trump-travel-ban-justice-department/

June 27: Watchdog group finds more spending at Trump properties by foreign governments, political groups
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/watchdog-group-finds-spending-trump-properties-foreign-governments/story?id=56201919

Undated CREW Summary:
District court proceedings
Trump filed a motion to dismiss on June 9, 2017.[20] on the grounds that the plaintiffs had no right to sue[21] and that the described conduct was not illegal.[22] A response to the motion to dismiss was filed on August 4, 2017, with a DOJ reply due by September 22, 2017.[23] A full answer from DOJ lawyers to the facts alleged in the complaint was due on August 11, 2017.[24] Oral arguments were expected October 18, 2017.[25]

On December 21, 2017, the motion to dismiss was granted; Judge George B. Daniels held that plaintiffs lacked standing.[14]

Appeal
CREW plans to appeal the dismissal of the suit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CREW_v._Trump

Update: On February 18, 2018, Plaintiff’s appealed.

Update:
On April 24, 2018, Plaintiff’s filed a brief with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
https://www.citizensforethics.org/lawsuit/crew-v-donald-j-trump/

Back to top


July 25: Court: Emoluments Clause Applies To Trump And His Hotel Profits

A landmark case arguing that Trump has violated the Constitution by accepting foreign government money is going forward.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-emoluments-clause_us_5b58bbb5e4b0de86f492ca16

September 28: Judge Denies Trump’s Request to Dismiss Emoluments Lawsuit
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/us/politics/trump-emoluments-democrats-lawsuit.html

September 28: U.S. court lets Congress members sue Trump over foreign payments

The lawsuit, filed in June 2017, is the third constitutional challenge to Trump’s business interests while in office, but it is notable because the plaintiffs are themselves members of Congress.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-emoluments/u-s-court-lets-congress-members-sue-trump-over-foreign-payments-idUSKCN1M82S0?ref=patrick.net

October 19: Nadler & Blumenthal Demand President Trump Fully Disclose Saudi Government Payments his Businesses Have Accepted During his Presidency

Trump’s acceptance of foreign government payments violates the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause
https://nadler.house.gov/press-release/nadler-blumenthal-demand-president-trump-fully-disclose-saudi-government-payments-his

-- 2019 --  

Back to top





-- 2020 --

Back to top






 Webpage visitor counts provided by






 

copyr 2018 trump-news-history.com, Minneapolis, MN