Two New Plaintiffs Join Lawsuit Accusing Trump Of Constitutional Breach: Report
Donald Trump is violating the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, a lawsuit claims.
Two new plaintiffs plan to join a lawsuit that accuses Donald Trump of violating the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, a report by the Washington Post noted Monday. The two organizations are “an association of restaurants and restaurant workers and a woman who books banquet halls for two D.C. hotels.”
“It’s damage to our members, both employers’ bottom lines, and workers’ loss of income and tips,” said Saru Jayaraman, co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United.
The two new plaintiffs join a case brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) which is a Washington D.C. based ethics watchdog group.
The lawsuit alleges that Donald Trump by “continuing to own his business, which rents out hotel rooms and meeting spaces to other governments — Trump had violated the constitutional provision that bans ’emoluments’ from foreign powers.”
Some legal experts questioned whether an ethics watchdog group has legal standing to make an Emoluments lawsuit but the two new plaintiffs will likely mitigate that concern.
The Washington Post notes that “Both say that, as direct competitors of Trump’s restaurants and hotels, they may lose foreign clients, who may book with Trump properties to curry favor with the president.”
