Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) along with approximately 200 other members of Congress sued former President Donald Trump during his term in office, accusing the then-president of receiving “numerous financial benefits from foreign governments through his business empire without first obtaining the consent of Congress.”
Blumenthal, who asserted Trump had violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, is reminding his contituents of his suit in light of recent revelations surfaced by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee, which claims that at least $7.8 million moved from foreign regimes to Trump’s personal businesses while he was President, including transfers from China and Saudi Arabia.
(Saudi royalty notably also backed Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s investment vehicle with $2 billion not long after Trump left office.)
Did someone say “Emoluments Clause?” Trump’s treating the presidency as a personal piggy bank—taking $7.8M+ from foreign gov’ts or leaders—is expressly forbidden by the Constitution. That’s exactly why I sued him—w/200+ of my colleagues—several years ago. https://t.co/M3tG7gKOck
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) January 11, 2024
On social media, Blumenthal amplified a Washington Post analysis that describes the Oversight Committee report on Trump administration emoluments corruption as “gobsmacking.”
[WaPo: “One would expect such a gobsmacking report — indicative of the extent of four-times-indicted Trump’s alleged unconstitutional behavior (violating the emoluments clause, the report argues) and personal corruption…”]
Blumenthal added: “Trump’s treating the presidency as a personal piggy bank—taking $7.8M+ from foreign gov’ts or leaders—is expressly forbidden by the Constitution.”
Thumbing his nose at the framers of the Constitution, Trump, according to the Oversight Committee report, “threatened to obliterate a critical and defining principle of American democracy — namely, the strict separation of a president’s personal financial interests from those of the nation.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee who helped prepare the report, wrote that its “detailed findings make clear that we don’t have the laws in place to deal with a president who is willing to brazenly convert the presidency into a business for self-enrichment and wealth maximization with the collusive participation of foreign state.”
Blumenthal took his emoluments case all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear an appeal on the ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that Blumenthal and his fellow plaintiffs “lacked the legal standing to sue the president.”
