WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh announced June 12 that they are suing President Donald Trump for allegations of violating the Constitution’s Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses.
“President Trump has violated important anti-corruption provisions of the U.S. Constitution. We are a nation of laws and no one—including the President of the United States—is above the law,” Racine said. “As state attorneys general representing the people, we have a duty to serve as a check and balance against the president, whose business activities have opened the door to the type of corruption the Framers of our Constitution aimed to prevent.”
Racine and Frosh seek an injunction that would bar the president from violating the clauses. They claim his wide-ranging business entanglements are illegal while president. According to the attorneys general, the Emoluments Clauses were put in the Constitution to limit corruption.
“Elected leaders must serve the people, and not their personal financial interests. That is the indispensable foundation of a democracy,” Frosh said. “We cannot treat a president’s ongoing violations of the Constitution and disregard for the rights of the American people as the new and acceptable status quo. The president, above all other elected officials, must have only the interests of Americans at the heart of every decision.”