COURTS/JUSTICE DEPARTMENT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP BUSINESS: “Lawyers for President Donald Trump are invoking the government shutdown to seek a delay in a court case over claims that Trump is illegally profiting from business his Washington hotel does with foreign countries. Justice Department attorneys representing Trump asked a federal appeals court on Wednesday [12-26-18] to postpone indefinitely all further filings in an appeal related to a suit that the governments of Maryland and Washington, D.C., filed over Trump’s alleged violation of the Constitution’s ban on foreign emoluments. The government’s brief is not due until Jan. 22, but DOJ lawyers asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va., to put the appeal on ice until the shutdown ends.”
–Josh Gerstein, “Trump lawyers, citing shutdown, ask court for delay in emoluments case,” Politico, December 26, 2018 2:28 pm