John Mikhail on the dictionary definition of "emolument" was extensively cited by the judge in the ongoing emolument case against the Trump administration in Maryland federal court.
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An emolument need not be a direct payment for services rendered.
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If the meaning of "emolument" is as broad as the suit argues, then the word "present" in the clause — "accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title" — adds nothing, because surely the broad interpretation covers "presents" too.
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The judges questioned the broad interpretation of "emolument" adopted by DC and Maryland.
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Emolument is Constitution-speak for a salary or benefit derived from public office.
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Several lawsuits have been filed accusing Trump of violating the Constitution's emolument clause.
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" MULVANEY: "Again, anticipating your questions, how is this this is not emolument violation?
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Defining exactly what constitutes an emolument is at the heart of those cases.
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But in 230 years, no court has interpreted what exactly constitutes an emolument.
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The world "emolument" may sound archaic, but the goal of the clause is clear.
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In theory, the Constitution's Emolument Clause forbids presidents from taking money from foreign powers.
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Obviously, the government spending, whether it's federal, state, or local, is a domestic emolument.
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Arguments that the Trump family's hotel constitutes an emolument are something of a stretch.
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Until now, the issue of what constitutes an illegal emolument has never been litigated.
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But the judge said the department's lawyers were defining an emolument far too narrowly.
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Maryland and DC are not the first parties to an emolument suit against Mr Trump.
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And even if the rules did apply, the concept of an "emolument" is quite narrow.
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Moopan argued on Monday that the president profiting off that does not constitute an emolument.
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Directors' salaries are comparable at those four banks, at just over US$220,000, said Emolument.
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"Just because it's a business transaction doesn't necessarily mean it's not an emolument," Daniels said.
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First, it is wrong because the framers absolutely would have considered a hotel bill an emolument.
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An entry-level banker earned around 50,13 pounds, before taxes, in 2015, research from Emolument showed.
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It prohibits any financial gift, or emolument, from benefiting a sitting public official, including the president.
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The next stage of the case is expected to involve arguments about what constitutes an emolument.
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" "It addresses any present, as in a gift, any emolument, as in cash, of any kind.
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Like Judge Messitte, Judge Sullivan ruled that the Justice Department's definition of an emolument was too narrow.
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At issue is the meaning of the emolument clause of the Constitution in Article I, Section 9.
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No quid pro quo need exist for a foreign emolument to the American president to violate the Constitution.
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"Emolument" is an interesting word, one that most of us do not run across in our everyday dealings.
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It says the President "shall not receive... any other Emolument from the United States" other than a salary.
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Average base salaries for senior fund managers are around 160,000 pounds, data from salary benchmarking firm emolument showed.
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No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument.
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On the definition question, Messitte wrote that the use of "expansive modifiers" in the text of the two clauses — the foreign clause banning "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever" and the domestic clause banning "any other Emolument" — undermined the government's position that the definition should be narrow.
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Certain constitutional scholars counter that the definition of "emolument" should be more narrow, a view that Trump's attorneys share.
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He said that office's mandate is to screen for national security and diplomatic concerns, not for potential emolument violations.
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An "emolument" is usually defined as money or other benefits you get from a job or office you hold.
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For example a vice president at a bank can get £108,000 in Frankfurt compared to £90,000 in Paris, Emolument said.
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"No one would have thought when the Constitution was written, that paying your hotel bill was an emolument," she said.
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He said the Justice Department was trying to equate an emolument with a bribe from foreign or state government officials.
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"If you're applying the original meaning of emolument, the Mississippi transaction you're describing could reasonably be called one," Mr. Mikhail said.
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When he takes his oath of office, does that income automatically become an emolument within the meaning of the emoluments clause?
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This is why they included the emolument clause in the Constitution -- specifying that those who led the nation could not "without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" -- and Madison clearly stated that its violation was cause for impeachment.
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What exactly the term "emolument" means is still the subject of litigation in court, but it's generally defined as a financial benefit.
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In July, he sided with DC and Maryland in adopting a broader definition of "emolument" than what the Justice Department had argued.
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Figures from pay benchmarking company Emolument show that Frankfurt-based analysts in investment banks earning 10% more than comparable analysts in Paris.
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Banking, by contrast, is relatively well-paid: Emolument research shows an entry-level banker earned around 2230,22 pounds, before taxes, in 2000.
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If the US Supreme Court decided tomorrow that the word "emolument" actually means "sunglasses," then that is the law of the land.
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In doing so, he became the first federal judge ever to rule on the meaning of the word "emolument" in the Constitution.
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"We found evidence that the term 'emolument' as used historically and today includes the gain from private business activities," the report said.
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The main complaint here is that when a foreign official stays at the Trump hotel, they will be giving him an emolument -- i.e.
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The plaintiffs' challenge rests on firmer ground than another emolument lawsuit in New York, which was dismissed for lack of standing in December.
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Our Founding Fathers identified the principles important to the bedrock of our democracy; they included an anticorruption measure known as the Emolument Clause.
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Those figures comprise the average annual salary and bonus combined of 4,475 front-office bankers' pay packages analyzed for the study, Emolument said.
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Emoluments With the collapse of collusion, various Democrats and lawyers have pushed the claim that Trump's D.C. hotel is a giant "emolument" magnet.
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But the US banks pay VPs an average bonus of US$155,000, compared to US$102,500 at HSBC and Barclays, according to Emolument.
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Instead, it would have been thought of as a value-for-value exchange; not a gift, not a title, and not an emolument.
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The other bars federal officials from taking "any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever" from "any king, prince or foreign state".
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That clause says that no federal official may "accept any present, emolument, office or title" from a foreign entity "without the consent of Congress".
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The committee is investigating President Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest and violation of the Constitution's emolument clause due to his real estate ties.
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If a judge decides this group of scholars and CREW don't have standing, who could possibly make a valid complaint citing the Emolument Clause?
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And he criticised Mr Trump's "cramped interpretation" of what counts as an emolument: if outright bribery was all the clauses barred they would be redundant.
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An "emolument" refers to compensation for a service or labor, which raises the question of whether foreign payments to Trump-owned businesses constitute forbidden emoluments.
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A section known as the emoluments clause prohibits any officeholder in the United States from accepting any "emolument, title, or office" from a foreign government.
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The other bans federal officials from receiving "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever" from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.
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The definition proposed by the government would basically define an emolument as a bribe, the judge wrote, and the Constitution already separately made that a crime.
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The 4th Circuit didn't address the question of what an emolument is or whether the term would apply to profits Trump received from his businesses, however.
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"The clear weight of the evidence shows that an 'emolument' was commonly understood by the founding generation to encompass any 'profit,' 'gain,' or 'advantage,'" Messitte wrote.
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But Raskin wants the House to vote this fall on a resolution he authored that disapproves of every foreign emolument Trump has received since taking office.
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The lawsuits raise the constitutional issue — never before litigated until Mr. Trump took office — of what constitutes an illegal benefit, or emolument, to a federal official.
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The Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting benefits or emoluments from foreign or state governments, but courts have yet to resolve what constitutes an illegal emolument.
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At issue in this case was the meaning of "emolument" -- a term used in the Constitution that says US officeholders should not accept presents from foreign governments.
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In this next phase, Messitte will decide what an "emolument" is, and whether the word applies to the Trump hotel's dealings with foreign governments and US agencies.
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"By and large the people who have this ethos win in life, and they don't win just money [or] just honors and emolument," Munger told law students.
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In the plaintiffs' eyes, the anti-emolument principles represent "a prophylactic rule to prevent the slightest chance" that presidents will be compromised by foreign powers or state governors.
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"The more logical conclusion is the one that Plaintiffs urge: Theuse of 'any kind whatever' was intended to ensure the broader meaning of the term 'emolument,'" Messitte wrote.
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Specifically at issue is the emoluments clause, which says that no elected official shall accept an "emolument" of "any kind whatever" from a king, prince, or foreign state.
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In Frankfurt, 70 percent of bankers interviewed said they had a good work-life balance, Emolument said, as against 61 percent for London and 59 percent for Paris.
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No person holding any office of trust shall, without the consent of Congress, accept any present Emolument of any kind whatsoever from any king, prince or foreign state.
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"By and large the people who have this ethos win in life, and they don't win just money [or] just honors and emolument," Munger told the law students.
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Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said in an interview when asked why he wasn't opening an investigation into Trump's apparent violation of the Emolument Clause.
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Instead, Mr Messitte concluded, with a nod to a number of founding-era dictionaries, "'emolument' was commonly understood by the founding generation to encompass any 'profit', 'gain' or 'advantage'".
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For example, he said that under the broader definition of an emolument, presidents and senior federal officials couldn't own stock in businesses that profited from dealings with foreign governments.
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The word "emolument" is generally defined as a financial benefit, but that definition has been one of the major issues in dispute in all of the cases against Trump.
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Corruption and nepotism: The Constitution prohibits the president from receiving any "emolument" from a state and prohibits anyone from receiving payments from foreign governments without the consent of Congress.
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According to Adler, the violation occurs when a U.S. official, in this case, the president, accepts an emolument, not when the hotel guest, for example, pays the Trump Organization.
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" Although it is not clear what constitutes an "emolument" — defined by Webster's New World Dictionary as "gain from employment or position, payment received for work, salary, wages, fees, etc.
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" In July, Messitte ruled against the Trump legal team's request to dismiss parts of the lawsuit, and largely sided with Maryland and DC's definition of emolument as an "advantage.
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"If that funneling could launder the emolument, the clause would become a dead letter," said Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law expert at Harvard who's also part of the lawsuit.
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If Congress wants to, it can take up the issue of Trump's likely violation of the emolument clause based on the evidence in the public record and Trump's own admissions.
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The proportion of people employed in trading with degrees in mathematics and statistics has increased by a 58 percent over the last 10 years, Emolument, a salary benchmarking site, said.
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It's never polite to boast, but the observation I made in a previous column has just been confirmed before a nationwide TV audience: the word "emolument" is all the rage.
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" The domestic emoluments clause says the president will be paid for his service and "shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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Despite the broad pay gaps, Emolument said some bankers could be financially better off if they moved to Frankfurt, where the cost of living is 60 percent lower than in London.
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No court has ever teased out exactly what the clauses entail, but Mr Trump's reading is both ahistorical (ignoring founding-era dictionary definitions of "emolument" as "profit") and implausibly self-serving.
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The "any benefit" folks are right that the text of the Constitution contains no explanation or limitation of the word "emolument" or the other kinds of benefits that violate the clause.
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The definition of what an "emolument" is is vague and expansive, Dillon argued it shouldn't be applied to such routine payments like paying for a hotel bill in a foreign country.
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It would be up to the Republican Congress to decide whether to take action against an emolument-clause violation, and since the Republican Congress loves Trump right now, that's probably unlikely.
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And Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 bars all federal officials from receiving "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever" from a foreign state, unless Congress gives its consent.
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Thankfully, we have more evidence to deduce what an "emolument" might be, and that evidence strongly points to payments that are related to the office itself, particularly in compensation for services rendered.
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Congress has the power to approve a foreign emolument under that clause, the judge noted, so it wouldn't make sense to criminalize the receipt of something that Congress could also sign off on.
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The Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause prohibits certain public officials from accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" without the consent of Congress.
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The burden was on the president to convince members to approve of an emolument he wanted to accept, Sullivan wrote — it was not on Democrats to convince their colleagues to vote on other legislation.
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A payment could only be considered an unconstitutional "emolument" if there was an exchange involved, he said, either for an official act by Trump or a service similar to something an employee would do.
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The judge wrote that if Congress hadn't approved the receipt of an emolument by the president, the court had the authority to step in and review whether the president was complying with the law.
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He said the complaint from members of Congress was "the weirdest one" because a court ruling that would for the first time in 230 years define what constituted an emolument would also cover them.
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Just last week, the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued Trump for violating the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bars federal officials from receiving any "present" or "emolument" from a foreign state.
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The case to be heard, still in an early phase of the litigation, and the other emolument lawsuits pending, may not be fully resolved by the end of 2020, as Trump's term is ending.
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This came up in a concrete way when three Republicans in Congress told President Barack Obama in 2009 that he'd need Congress's permission to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which they viewed as an emolument.
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The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution states that people holding office should not "accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" without congressional approval.
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In Paris, bonuses can account for as much as 49 percent of a banker's total compensation, according to Emolument, with a managing director's bonus being approximately £153,000 ($200,254) out of a total £312,000 compensation package.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Bankers relocating from London to other European financial hubs following Britain's exit from the European Union could face lower pay packages, according to an industry survey published on Friday by compensation consultant Emolument.
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Although Congress has the theoretical power to give its consent to an otherwise unconstitutional foreign emolument, the odds that it would do so when it can simply dodge the issue by doing nothing are vanishingly low.
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An intern with a client facing role can expect to earn about 213,221 pounds ($240,22012) at an investment bank, data provided by salary benchmarking site Emolument shows, based on 196 investment banking interns working in London.
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That clause, which bars federal office holders from receiving any present or emolument from "any King, Prince or foreign state," means a president should not earning money from foreign governments at his various properties and businesses.
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The clause says that "no person holding any office of profit or trust" shall "accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state" unless Congress consents.
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The first is the foreign emoluments clause, which prohibits officers of the federal government from accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" without Congress's consent.
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Gorod said it wouldn't matter — the foreign emoluments clause gave each member the right to vote to decide whether to approve the president's acceptance of a particular emolument, so even one member would have standing to sue.
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In his ruling, Sullivan found that Trump had disregarded "the ordinary meaning" of the term "emolument" as intended in the Constitution by claiming that it should apply only to profits he earns directly through his own work.
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And the clause says that "no person holding any office of profit or trust" shall "accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state" unless Congress consents.
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Foreign diplomats have already admitted to spending at Trump-owned businesses to impress the president — something independent ethics experts say will likely run afoul of the Constitution's emolument clause if it continues once Trump is sworn in.
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One clause prohibits officials from accepting "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever" from foreign governments unless Congress approves; another bars presidents from getting payments from federal or state governments other than their salaries.
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The Post notes that Sheri Dillon, an attorney for Trump, has said financial transactions at "arm's length," such as money spent at his properties, would not amount to an "emolument," meaning money gained from holding public office.
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They are asking the Trump Organization to provide information on "any foreign government discussing, offering, or providing, or being solicited to discuss, offer, or provide, any present or emolument of any kind" after Trump was elected President.
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Vice presidents at the New York offices of HSBC and Barclays earn an average salary of just over US$180,000, in line with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citigroup, according to salary benchmarking firm Emolument.
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"No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was an emolument," one of the lawyers, Sheri A. Dillon, a partner at Morgan Lewis, said at a news conference this month.
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The attempt to receive a foreign emolument, in the form of material assistance for his reelection campaign, is just the sort of solicitation and receipt of bribes and gratuities that are prohibited by the United States criminal code.
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The Emoluments Clause states that no person holding U.S. government office can accept "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever" from a foreign entity over concerns of domestic influence or control, otherwise known as bribery.
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" The Founders specifically mandated that the president "shall not receive within [the period during which he was elected to serve as president] any Emolument [other than his fixed compensation] from the United States, or any of the [states].
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Interpreting the emoluments clause In his opinion, Messitte expansively read the term "emolument" in the Constitution to cover, and ultimately ban, the President from receiving "anything more than de minimis profit, gain, or advantage" in his private capacity.
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He said the term "emolument" expansively covers any so-called non-de minimis profit, gain or advantage the president receives through the Trump International Hotel by virtue of government customers' patronage of the hotel, according to court documents.
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Analyzing 8,065 salaries for front-office banking roles in London, Frankfurt and Paris, Emolument found that London bankers earned higher salaries than their German or French peers, from entry-level analyst jobs right up to coveted managing director positions.
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The inspector general of the Department of Defense is probing whether Flynn had "failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government," according to the April 11 letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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" Another provision, which is sometimes referred to as the "domestic emoluments clause," provides that the president shall receive "a Compensation" for his services, and shall not receive "any other Emolument from the United States, or any of [the several states].
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As an example, she referred to someone who paid his or her hotel bill (presumably after a stay in a Trump hotel); she concluded that such a "fair value exchange" is not an "emolument" within the meaning of the Constitution.
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"As regards moving away from London to other EU capitals, while pay may be lower, pain points such as schooling and generally higher quality of life should compensate bankers transferring to the continent," Alice Leguay, co-founder at Emolument said.
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Sheri Dillon, a lawyer who represents the Trump Organization, has disputed that the Emoluments Clause applies to hotel rooms being rented by representatives of foreign governments, arguing that payments based on market rates for services do not represent an emolument.
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That amendment was nearly ratified (it failed by two states), and it would have stripped citizenship from any person who, without the consent of Congress, accepted a "present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever" from a foreign government.
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The courts are grappling with how to interpret the constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause which prohibits government officials from accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State" without the consent of Congress.
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The Defense Department inspector general is investigating whether Flynn "failed to obtain required approval prior to receiving any emolument from a foreign government," according to an April 11 letter released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
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But that answer misses another big barrier presented by Trump's clinging to a sprawling business empire: that it will directly violate the Constitution, which says no elected official can take an "emolument" of "any kind whatever" from a king, prince, or foreign state.
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Sullivan wrote that this argument missed the point — the fact that Democrats could vote on legislation related to emoluments wasn't the same as voting on a particular emolument presented by the president for approval, per the terms of the Foreign Emoluments Clause.
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LONDON (Reuters) - London-based bankers considering a possible relocation if Britain votes out of the European Union would suffer pay cuts of up to 80 percent if they were to move to Frankfurt or Paris, data from salary-benchmarking site Emolument showed.
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The other day, for example, 200 Congressmen filed a suit in federal court, arguing that voters and lawmakers have a right to know whether Trump's businesses are violating the Constitution's emolument clause, which bars the president from accepting payments from foreign countries.
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Unless we believe that the Framers intended to prohibit any presidential secondary source of income that could, even incidentally, do business with a foreign government or official, then clearly "emolument" is a term of art that covers specific types of payments and gifts.
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" The Emoluments Clause states that "no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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The plan announced on Wednesday does nothing to fix this problem because if President Trump still owns the businesses, or he is the beneficiary of a trust that owns the businesses, he receives the economic benefit — the "emolument" — from all of these transactions.
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Previous discussions of whether earlier presidents have violated the clause have been much more limited — such as when three Republicans in Congress told President Barack Obama in 2009 that he'd need Congress's permission to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, which they viewed as an emolument.
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An "emolument" is a benefit that the president receives in exchange for a personal service that he performs either in his official capacity — such as signing a treaty — or via an employer-employee relationship, such as being on a foreign government's payroll, he said.
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" The suit revolves around whether Trump's continued ownership of his business empire violates the emoluments clause prohibiting any "Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust" from receiving "any present, Emolument, Office or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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"Accordingly, if you are ever in a position where you would receive an emolument from a foreign government or from an entity that might be controlled by a foreign government, be sure to obtain advance approval from the Army prior to acceptance," Flynn was told.
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The median salary including bonuses for entry-level bankers, typically the most lucrative first role in financial services, went in the other direction during the same period, down 4.2 percent since 2011, according to research from Emolument, a website that benchmarks salaries across the industry.
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They said the errors included his broad definition of an emolument as "anything of value," his determination that the local jurisdictions have standing to sue the president and his ruling that their claim was valid enough that they be allowed to try to prove it.
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O'Rourke also pledged that if elected president, he would press Congress to make a president's acceptance of help from a foreign power for personal profit or political gain a federal crime, while ensuring nonfinancial assistance from a foreign power in an election constitutes an emolument.
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Lawyers for DC and Maryland argued that an "emolument" is a "profit, gain, or advantage," a broad definition that they said would cover payments by foreign governments or officials to the DC hotel, as well as actions by the General Services Administration favorable to the Trump Organization.
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"I don't really think that we'd want to impeach the president where the impeachment would depend on the technical meaning of a word -- 'emolument' -- that has never been considered by the courts and it was used by the Framers 200 and something years ago," he said.
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In a two-hour hearing, attorneys for the local jurisdictions and for the Justice Department debated what the framers meant by the emoluments clauses, citing definitions of the word emolument in centuries-old dictionaries and quoting Alexander Hamilton and other founders in attempts to discern their intent.
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Legal scholars will continue to debate the definition of an emolument but the new revelations of payments to Trump's businesses come as his administration is scolding Cabinet secretaries for embarrassing stories about questionable ethical behavior at their agencies, a source familiar with the meetings told CNN.
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But if you happen to be swinging by Mar-a-Lago on your way to emolument the hell out of the president, do be sure to remember to add the pool to your no-go list, alongside eating at the restaurant, climbing the stairs, or connecting to the wifi.
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In a free-wheeling interview with the staff of The New York Times, the president-elect made a series of comments that lend credence to the suspicion that he's running afoul of the "emolument clause" of the Constitution, which prevents the president from being bribed by foreign powers.
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Drafters of the Constitution were so determined to reduce potential corruption that they prohibited officials from accepting "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever" from foreign governments without approval from Congress, and barred presidents from receiving payments from federal or state governments other than a salary.
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" It states: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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Even though it may distract momentarily from his multi-emolument nest-feathering, he is still under scrutiny for things he thinks are perfectly reasonable, such as passing the running of his business on to his adult children and then having them visibly meet with world leaders or alleging unsubstantiated massive-scale voter fraud.
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George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman who previously advised a former ruler of the UAE, was also asked to provide information about "any foreign governments discussing, offering, or providing, or being solicited to discuss, offer, or provide, any present or emolument of any kind" to Trump, and any of his associates or businesses.
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Barrack, founder of private equity real estate firm Colony Capital, has been asked to hand over documentation as it pertains to numerous issues involving the president, including foreign governments "discussing, offering, or providing, or being solicited to discuss, offer, or provide, any present or emolument of any kind," to Trump's inaugural committee.
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The Emoluments Clause, a provision of the Constitution that refers to the word for compensation for labor or services says that "no person holding any office of profit or trust" shall "accept of any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state" unless Congress consents.
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The Justice Department had argued for a narrower definition — that an "emolument" was a benefit that a president received in exchange for a personal service that he or she performed in their official capacity — such as signing a treaty — or through an employer-employee relationship, such as being on the payroll of a foreign government.
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London continues to remain lucrative for bankers despite the uncertainty over the country's withdrawal from the EU. Data published from human resources firm Emolument, which analyzed 4,20183 salaries and bonuses from front-office bankers (traders) working in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Milan, found that the U.K. capital was the most rewarding in terms of pay.
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Even assuming that the president's subsequent "donation" of an emolument would resolve the constitutional problem posed by his "accept[ing]" it (a proposition there's reason to question), Trump hasn't explained why he's only donating profits from foreign government payments to his hotels, rather than the benefits received from all of his foreign business dealings.
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Various ethics lawyers charge that the Trumps are violating the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which forbids any "person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under the United States" from accepting "any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State" — unless Congress explicitly consents.
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Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the US Constitution says: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of Amy kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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As one example of the type of foreign emolument the framers had in mind, Shumate pointed to the fact that King Charles II, who ruled England in the mid-17th century, was also on the payroll of France — that was the type of benefit the clause was designed to prevent, he said, not profits from commercial transactions.
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" Jefferson, however, believed that "proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.
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" Read TIME's Cover Story: Donald Trump's Suite of Power This, the suit argues, violates the emoluments clause in the Constitution, which says, "No Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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The Judiciary Committee asked Barrack to turn over documents related to Trump campaign or transition contacts with Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Saudi Arabia; any foreign government discussing an emolument to Trump or his family business after the 2016 election; and any loan or financing in Trump's business from Russia or Russian nationals since 2015.
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Mr. Nadler queried Trump Organization executives — including Mr. Weisselberg, Matthew Calamari, Alan Garten and Ronald C. Lieberman — for documents related to any foreign or domestic government "discussing, offering, or providing, or being solicited to discuss, offer, or provide, any present or emolument of any kind" to Mr. Trump, his businesses, Mr. Kushner, his businesses and the inaugural committee.
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"The text, structure, and history of the Constitution's Emoluments Clauses demonstrate that the term 'emolument' therein refers only to compensation accepted from a foreign or domestic government for services rendered by an officer in either an official capacity or employment-type relationship," the Justice Department said in a brief to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in October.
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Sullivan will now move to the rest of Trump's arguments about why the case should be dismissed — the government is arguing that Democrats are pressing too broad a definition of "emolument," and that the term wasn't meant to apply to a president's private business interests that don't involve him acting in his capacity as president on behalf of a foreign government.
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" The clause on domestic emoluments, found in Article II, Section 1, says: "The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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" The clause on domestic emoluments, found in Article II, Section 1, says: "The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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Here's the clause in question from Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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"The Court determines that Plaintiffs have convincingly argued that the term 'emolument' in both the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses, with slight refinements that the Court will address, means any 'profit,' 'gain,' or 'advantage' and that accordingly they have stated claims to the effect that the President, in certain instances, has violated both the Foreign and Domestic Clauses," Missette wrote.
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" The Domestic Emoluments Clause — Article II, Section 1, Clause 7 — states that "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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Photos captured by social media users also showed the full Emoluments Clause, "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state," projected onto the Pennsylvania Avenue building.
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But even if the condominium owners did not use their rental income to pay their common charges, it still could be considered an emolument because the foreign governments helped those owners defray their costs, with the benefit flowing to Trump, according to Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University School of Law who has studied the history of Justice Department interpretations on the subject.
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Here is the text of the foreign emoluments clause in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.
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Here is the text of that clause in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.
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Searches on Merriam-Webster's website for the word "emolument" jumped more than 9,100 percent on Wednesday following a federal judge's decision to allow a case concerning the issue against President TrumpDonald John TrumpFacebook releases audit on conservative bias claims Harry Reid: 'Decriminalizing border crossings is not something that should be at the top of the list' Recessions happen when presidents overlook key problems MORE to move forward.
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" The framers expressed this explicitly by inserting what is now called the emoluments clause in the Constitution, barring international payments or gifts to a president or other federal elected official: "No person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
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Much of the questions presented to Letter also surrounded the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which some, including Democratic lawmakers, allege that Trump is violating, particularly with the ownership of the Trump International Hotel in D.C. The House attorney said that by getting Trump's financial records, lawmakers could obtain more details on the president's connections to the hotel and potentially pass legislation further defining what an emolument is.
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" And the Constitution's Domestic Emoluments Clause (also known as the Presidential Compensation Clause), which cannot be waived by Congress, says: "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
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"It would be absurd to imagine that an otherwise forbidden emolument in the form of a foreign government's payment to the American President could be cured if the President were to give that foreign government its money's worth (or more) in services advancing that government's interests, which might well be contrary to our own," Eisen wrote in a research paper with Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and Richard Painter, George W. Bush's ethics lawyer.
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" Experts Agree Trump's Ethics Plan Falls Short Why Donald Trump's Business Dealings Matter Donald Trump Will Not Release Tax Returns, White House Adviser Says At issue is Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution — less tongue-twistingly known as the Emoluments Clause — which says "no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust ... shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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" Trump's legal team seems confident that the American people will be appeased by this sleight of hand and that it will satisfy the much-discussed emoluments clause of the U.S. constitution which states: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
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John ConyersJohn James ConyersEXCLUSIVE: Trump on reparations: 'I don't see it happening' McConnell: Reparations aren't 'a good idea' This week: Democrats move funding bills as caps deal remains elusive MORE (D-Mich.) wrote in an op-ed in the Detroit Free Press that Trump's business interests, particularly his Washington, D.C., hotel, flout the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause barring presidents from accepting "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state" without congressional approval.
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