WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats introduced legislation Tuesday that would ban U.S. officials from accepting money, payments or gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. This is their response to a years-long investigation into former President Donald Trump’s foreign business dealings.
The proposal led by Rep. Jamie Raskin and Sen. Richard Blumenthal would enforce the Constitution’s emoluments ban, which prohibits the president from accepting foreign gifts and money without congressional approval. Democrats say Trump blatantly ignored the clause as president as foreign government officials flocked to his hotels and properties.
“While we have not had to develop a full legislative apparatus to enforce the emoluments clause for more than two centuries, Congress must enact law now to prevent presidents from ever again exploiting the presidency for self-enrichment by selling out our government to foreign states,” Raskin said in a statement Tuesday.
The legislation is unlikely to move forward in Congress, especially in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. But Democrats say the reform is necessary after a lengthy investigation by House Oversight Committee staff found that Trump’s companies received nearly $8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency.
It outlined how foreign governments and their entities poured millions into several Trump properties, including the Trump International Hotels in Washington and Las Vegas, as well as two Trump properties in New York. The beneficiaries ranged from China to Saudi Arabia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report states that the Chinese government made the largest total payment to Trump’s private business interests through their various financial institutions, some of which were investigated by the Justice Department during Trump’s term in office. It is also said that Saudi Arabia spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Trump’s properties around the time the former president signed an arms deal with the Saudi government worth more than $100 billion.
The 156-page report provided what Democrats claim is concrete evidence of Trump’s improper activities. Republicans have tried to impeach to no avail President Joe Biden of such activities as part of their impeachment inquiry.
Republican lawmakers have alleged that the president’s family has been trading under the Biden name, trying to link a handful of phone calls or dinner meetings between Biden, when he was vice president or not in office, and his son Hunter Biden and his business partners.
However, Republicans have failed to provide evidence showing that Joe Biden was directly involved in or benefited from his family’s businesses while in office.
Government ethics lawyers condemned Trump’s decision to hang on to his vast business empire after taking office, saying the decision provided ample opportunity for people seeking to influence U.S. policy to curry favor with the president.
In response, Trump and his legal team claimed that critics are misinterpreting the emoluments clauses, saying the Constitution’s framers did not intend them to cover fair value transactions between a company and its customers, such as offering a hotel room for the night for a fee.
The legislation would specifically prohibit federal officeholders — the president, vice president, members of the Cabinet, members of Congress and other high-ranking officials — from accepting future payments while in office and for two years after leaving office without first obtain the approval of Congress. It would also extend to money and gifts coming directly or indirectly from members of royal families and state-controlled companies.
To monitor for potential conflicts, the bill would in the future require federal officials to include any foreign payments they received on their annual ethics disclosure forms.
