“I write immediately to demand that you simply instantly return to the American folks the $7,886,072 that we all know you’ve got accepted from overseas governments in violation of the U.S. Structure’s Overseas Emoluments Clause — a reality you admitted, as soon as once more, at a Fox Information city corridor this week,” Raskin wrote within the letter addressed to Trump.
Trump admitted that overseas governments paid his Trump Group thousands and thousands of {dollars} for lodge stays throughout a Fox Information city corridor in Iowa on Wednesday.
“If I’ve a lodge and anyone is available in from China, that’s a small sum of money and it seems like some huge cash,” Trump stated. “That’s a small [amount of money], however I used to be doing companies for that.”
After changing into president, Trump refused to divest from his enterprise empire of resorts, actual property, golf programs and resorts and maintained management by a revocable belief led by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Throughout his presidency, these companies obtained $7.8 million in funds from overseas governments, in accordance with a report launched by Raskin and Home Oversight Committee Democrats on Jan. 3.
These funds violated the Structure’s Foreign Emoluments Clause forbidding officers of america from receiving something of worth from a overseas authorities with out consent from Congress, in accordance with Raskin.
Trump and his sons have justified the funds from overseas governments like China and Saudi Arabia as easy funds for companies rendered at resorts. They claimed to have donated earnings obtained from overseas authorities funds to the U.S. Treasury. This coverage, nevertheless, solely utilized to a few of Trump’s properties and solely a number of the funds made by overseas governments.
The Emoluments Clause, nevertheless, explicitly forbids receipt of something of worth from overseas governments — not simply earnings — as Raskin famous.
“[I]t is tough to think about a extra ludicrous and half-hearted method to the explicit prohibition within the Structure than The Trump Group’s ‘voluntary donation’ coverage, which was grossly underinclusive in a number of different respects,” Raskin writes. “By its personal phrases, the coverage utilized solely to sure Trump properties, excluded state-controlled entities, and was not topic to any form of audit or inspection.”
Along with repaying the complete $7.8 million Trump obtained from overseas governments to the U.S. Treasury, Raskin known as on the previous president and 2024 presidential candidate to “present Congress with a full accounting of all funds, advantages, or different emoluments you obtained from overseas governments or their brokers, together with by the greater than 500 entities you personal, throughout your time period as president.”
Trump confronted in depth lawsuits whereas president that challenged his receipt of overseas authorities funds as unconstitutional underneath the emoluments clause. These instances led to 2021 when the Supreme Courtroom declared them moot after he left workplace. Trump falsely claimed that he gained the emoluments instances throughout a Fox Information city corridor on Wednesday.
Raskin’s letter to Trump demanding he repay his overseas authorities funds comes as Republicans search to question President Joe Biden for allegedly receiving funds from overseas governments by his son, Hunter Biden. Republicans, nevertheless, haven’t offered nor discovered any proof that such funds to Biden occurred or exist. Raskin has as an alternative proven that Trump obtained copious funds from overseas governments, together with $5.5 million from China.
Learn the letter in full under.