Raskin demands Trump return money he accepted from foreign governments during presidency
Raskin’s request comes after Trump defended the profits he earned from foreign governments while in office during a town hall on Fox News this week, ignoring a question about whether he would pledge to divest from his businesses during a possible second term as president. Acknowledging the report released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee last week that detailed some of the payments from foreign governments and officials, Trump promoted his hotels and privates clubs, praising the “services he provided to China and other countries.
“If I have a hotel and somebody comes in from China — that’s a small amount of money. But I was doing services for them,” Trump said.”
House Democrats have argued that the payments violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, a provision that bars federal officials, including the president, from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments without permission from Congress.
“Your acceptance of foreign emoluments while in office was a stunning violation of the U.S. Constitution — and a profound betrayal of the interests of the United States and the trust of the American people,” Raskin wrote in the five-page letter. “You must immediately pay to the American people the $7,886,072 we now know you accepted in payments from foreign governments in violation of the Constitution.”
A protracted legal debate over the emoluments clause, initiated when Democrats controlled the House and sought access to Trump’s financial records, was never definitively resolved. When the matter ultimately landed at the Supreme Court in 2021, the justices said the cases were moot because Trump no longer held office. Democrats have revived the issue as Trump is poised for a potential rematch against President Biden in November.
Raskin also requested that Trump provide a full accounting of his personal financial records during the time he was in the White House, as the subset of records obtained by House Democrats represent “just four of your more than 500 opaque businesses and just two years of your presidency — and were themselves materially incomplete in many respects,” Raskin wrote.
A representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has said the company voluntarily donated 100 percent of estimated profits from foreign patronage, amounting to over $450,000. Trump and Republicans have also tried to draw a contrast between Trump and Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, as House Republicans have launched an impeachment inquiry into whether President Biden was involved in his son’s work. Republicans so far have not released any direct evidence that Biden benefited from his son’s financial involvement in Ukraine or elsewhere.
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