In a new letter to the ex-president, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee — has demanded that Donald Trump immediately cough up $7.8 million for the U.S. Treasury to cover for the same sum that business entities of his were paid by foreign governments and a “self-declared political entity” during his first two years in office.
Raskin cites evidentiary materials originating with Mazars USA, an accounting firm that did work for Trump’s business. The sum covers spending at just four Trump properties, including the now defunct hotel operated by the Trump Organization in Washington, D.C., while Trump was president. Raskin accuses Trump of brazenly violating what’s known as the emoluments clause to the U.S. Constitution, which bars presidents from receiving wide-ranging things of value from foreign government sources without the consent of Congress.
Raskin also mocked the approach claimed by Eric Trump — son to the former president and leader at the family business — of giving profits tied to foreign payments to the Treasury. Not only shakily defined profits are subject to the Constitution’s restrictions!
“Your violations of the U.S. Constitution and failure to place your duty of loyalty to the American people over your personal financial interests were entirely willful and knowing. You chose not to divest of your ownership of the more than 500 business entities you owned when you entered the White House,” Raskin said, subsequently adding: “Your acceptance of foreign emoluments while in office was a stunning violation of the U.S. Constitution—and a profound betrayal of the interests of the United States and the trust of the American people. You must immediately pay to the American people the $7,886,072 we now know you accepted in payments from foreign governments in violation of the Constitution.”
Notably, Trump and Republicans continue trying to run with unsupported claims that current President Joe Biden received large sums from foreign sources — though if true, it seems the behavior would roughly mirror what Trump himself was doing while in office!
