Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In” that there was “no question” former President Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from accepting payments or gifts from foreign governments and monarchs unless Congress consents.
Host Chris Hayes said, “We now have concrete evidence of Donald Trump received millions of dollars from foreign governments while he was president of the United States. It comes from a new 156-page report from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee titled White House for Sale, how princes, prime ministers and premieres paid off President Trump.”
He asked, “Do you think what you found in these are millions of dollars going from governments to the pockets of the president by his businesses, all out in the open, do you think that that is a violation of the Emoluments Clause?”
Raskin said, “No question. The Emoluments Clause was stated in an absolute categorical terms that the president, and no federal official can take any money of any kind whatsoever an emolument or an office or a present or a title from the prince, king, or foreign government without the explicit consent of Congress. Every other president in our history has scrupulously obeyed that command.”
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