The attorney generals for the District of Columbia and Maryland stood before the media and made a devastating point by point case for why Donald Trump is violating the Constitution and why it is up to them to do something about it.
Maryland and the District of Columbia are working together as we speak to perform a major lawsuit against Trump, arguing that his potential business dealings with foreign entities and lack of reporting them “undermined public trust and violated constitutional bans against self-dealing,” due to the fact that he is still involved with his business, the Trump Organization. High attorneys general from both areas say that this is a major violation of the Constitution.
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This lawsuit is unprecedented. No other state or district has ever tried to sue a president for violating the constitution. Both attorneys have specific evidence that shows that Trump had violated emoluments of the constitution, by both accepting foreign and federal benefits and gifts. The president is not allowed to accept any other gifts from the government besides his salary. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh had this (via PBS) to say when he detailed the concerns he has for American foreign relations due to Trump’s potentially nefarious acts:
“We have economic interests that are impacted, but the most salient factor is that when the president is subject to foreign influence, we have to be concerned about whether the actions he’s taking — both at home and abroad — are the result of payments that he is receiving at the Trump Hotel, payments that he is receiving at Mar-a-Lago, payments that he is receiving at Trump Tower, payments that he is receiving in all of his other far-flung enterprises, and he brags about it,â€
The lawsuit also focuses on the fact that Trump continues to have ownership of his business during his Presidency, which is a major conflict of interest.
Finally, the lawsuit is also being filed because both attorneys fear that there may be “self-interested motivations grounded in the international and domestic business dealings in which President Trump’s personal fortune is at stake,†which makes Trump appear to be more focused on running his shady business with other countries than running the country that he got elected to serve. Furthermore, it alleges that Trump misused his presidential office to profit from his hotels, increasing the price of rooms tremendously since the election
Trump is using his presidency and our country as a tool to make his billion dollar business even richer. His foreign and domestic conflicts of interest are one of the many reasons why he is unfit to serve, and this lawsuit brings those facts to light.
