LEGAL/TRUMP BUSINESS: “President Donald Trump managed to defeat the first lawsuit challenging his receipt of business profits while in office, but knocking out the second case over his alleged violations of the Constitution’s emoluments clauses may not be so easy.
As a daylong hearing on that second suit kicked off in a Maryland courtroom Thursday [1-25-18], U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte repeatedly indicated he wasn’t persuaded by aspects of a ruling a fellow judge in New York City issued last month dismissing a high-profile case over Trump’s refusal to divest his business holdings.
Messitte said he thought U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels was too quick to cast aside arguments that competitors to Trump’s businesses have legal standing to challenge benefits he’s receiving from his hotels, buildings and other ventures…
The suit brought by D.C. and Maryland complains that Trump is violating two separate constitutional clauses: one that prohibits a president from receiving emoluments from individual states and another that prohibits federal officials from receiving gifts or other payment from foreign nations, absent approval from Congress.
D.C. Deputy Solicitor General Loren AliKhan argued that D.C. and Maryland are being disadvantaged by actions officials in Florida have taken to resolve disputes related to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and by decisions state officials like Maine’s Gov. Paul LePage have made to stay at Trump’s D.C. hotel. The Trump administration later eased logging restrictions Maine had objected to…
The New York suit was filed by area hospitality businesses and employees as well as the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is also co-counsel to Maryland and D.C. officials in the case heard Thursday. No appeal of Daniels’ decision has yet been filed.
A third emoluments suit brought by more than 200 Democratic members of the House and Senate is pending in federal court in D.C. and has yet to see any substantive action.”
-Josh Gerstein, “Judge seems open to emoluments suit against Trump,” Politico, Jan. 25, 2018 04:06pm