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Donald Trump’s businesses received millions of dollars from foreign governments when he was president, a new report said Thursday, prompting congressional Democrats to charge that Trump violated the Constitution.
Twenty countries spent a total of at least $7.8 million at Trump-owned properties, including his hotels in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas, with China spending about $5.6 million of the total, according to the report compiled by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
“Transactions cited in the report took place over a two-year period rather than the entirety of Trump’s four-year term in office.”
“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of
corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former president Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” wrote the panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland.
Transactions cited in the report took place over a two-year period rather than the entirety of Trump’s four-year term in office, with Democrats able to secure, according to Raskin’s executive summary, only a “subset of documents” from Trump accounting firm Mazars.
Raskin writes that James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the committee, “apparently decided to allow attorneys for President Trump” to notify Mazars in 2023 that no further document production was required by the committee.
In a Friday interview with MSNBC, Raskin said that only four of Trump’s companies, out of a total number the Democrat estimated at 500, were studied, and that those companies’ dealings with just 20 countries, out of the globe’s nearly 200, came under the microscope for the new report.
The emoluments clause of the Constitution forbids presidents from accepting money from foreign governments without the consent of Congress.
From the archives (February 2020): Court dismisses Democratic lawmakers’ emoluments lawsuit against Trump
Also see (August 2018): Opinion: The Founding Fathers would have impeached Trump in a New York minute
Trump is the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House Democrats’ report comes as their GOP counterparts are pursuing an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that focuses on whether he benefited from the foreign business dealings of his son Hunter. Both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have denied wrongdoing.
The first nominating contest of the 2024 elections is less than two weeks away, with Iowa Republicans preparing to hold their caucuses on Jan. 15. Polling shows Trump leading his GOP rivals there by more than 30 points.
Trump’s Washington hotel was sold to an investor group in May 2022 and is now a Waldorf Astoria
HLT,
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