A federal judge in Maryland has rejected a request from President Trump to toss out a lawsuit alleging he violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution through his business dealings.
In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the District of Columbia and Maryland, thus allowing the case to proceed.
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, both Democrats, filed their lawsuit against Trump last year, arguing he is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause through his continued ownership of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The emoluments clause bars presidents from accepting gifts or money from “any king, prince, or foreign state” unless they receive approval from Congress.
Racine and Frosh received a victory in their lawsuit in March, when Messitte said they had the legal standing to sue Trump.
But the debate then turned to the definition of “emolument,” as the president argued the emoluments clause did not apply to his actions because an “emolument” referred to a “profit arising from an office or employ” and urged the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs in the case, however, successfully argued an “emolument” is “any ‘profit,’ ‘gain,’ or ‘advantage,’” according to court filings.
Messitte said in his ruling that several foreign governments have stayed at or expressed a desire to patron Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel, “some of which have indicated that they are doing so precisely because of the president’s association with it.”
In addition to denying Trump’s motion to dismiss, Messitte also directed the two parties to consult on the next steps in the case, including “what the general outline of any proposed discovery could be.”
After winning the presidency, Trump said leadership and management of the Trump Organization would be turned over to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, his two sons, and pledged to donate all of the company’s profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury.
The Trump Organization said it made a donation of $151,470 to the U.S. Treasury at the end of February that represented the profits earned in 2017 from foreign governments.
