Speaking of illegally benefitting from their time in office. China spent $5.4mm at Trump Tower. Saudia Arabia spent $620K.
Donald Trump unconstitutionally profited from foreign governments during his presidency, House Oversight Democrats allege in a new report.
news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON –
Former President Donald Trump unconstitutionally profited from the presidency during his tenure in the White House, reaping millions of dollars for his business empire from foreign governments,
House Democrats allege in an extensive report.
Democrats on
the House Oversight Committee released a 156-page report Thursday morning accusing Trump of exploiting the presidency to financially benefit himself and members of his family. Trump’s businesses, according to the report, received at least $7.8 million from corrupt and authoritarian governments including China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The report is the culmination of a nearly seven-year investigation. It says
records and documents obtained by House Oversight Democrats reveal "a stunning web of millions of dollars in payments made by foreign governments and their agents directly to Trump-owned businesses, while President Trump was in the White House.”
Among the report’s findings and records available to the committee, China made the most payments to Trump’s businesses during his tenure, spending more than $5.5 million at Trump Tower in New York and two of Trump’s hotels in Washington and Las Vegas.
House Oversight Democrats specifically accuse Trump of violating the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits the president of profiting from foreign governments without the approval of Congress.
The report notes that its findings are incomplete after House Republicans took control of the committee last year and halted the investigation, which the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., started in 2016 when he was the top Democrat on the committee.
"It is true that $7.8 million is almost certainly only a fraction of Trump’s harvest of unlawful foreign state money, but this figure in itself is a scandal and a decisive spur to action," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wrote in the report's foreword.