Monday, June 10, 2019

Impeachment Article V

The United States House of Representatives, pursuant to the exclusive authority granted to it in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States hereby specifies the following Articles of Impeachment of the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,

Resolved:

Article V: The President of the United States violates Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution of the United States by receiving payments from foreign governments while holding office without the consent of Congress.

TO BE CONTINUED....*

*The emoluments clause was recently interpreted by the federal courts in Blumenthal v. Trump, 17-cv-1154, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington), and District of Columbia v. Trump, 17-cv-1596, U.S. District Court, District of Maryland (Greenbelt). In both cases the court ruled that "emoluments" included not just bribes by foreign officials, but also payments or other considerations made by foreign officials.  Don Veto has business interests which he did not divest upon taking office--the first president to do so in forty years.  He receives revenue from those businesses, some of which are payments from foreign officials and governments; for example in Manhattan, the Trump Organization rents office space to a Chinese government controlled bank. Foreign diplomats often stay at the Trump Hotel in Washington DC that competes with other DC hotels for business. As Judge Sullivan noted in the DC case, he owns “more than 500 separate entities—hotels, golf courses, media properties, books, management companies, residential and commercial buildings set up to capitalize on licensing deals,” The regime blatantly acknowledged, “his businesses receive funds and make a profit from payments by foreign governments, and that they will continue to do so while he is President.” Edmund Randolph, at the Virginia ratifying convention of 1788, remarked that the emoluments clause protected the country against the danger of “the President receiving Emoluments from foreign powers” and asserted that a president who violates the clause “may be impeached.”