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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Justice Department Suddenly Changed Its Mind About the Constitution to Defend Trump's Businesses
Who's left to uphold the Constitution?
When Justice Department lawyers introduce themselves in court, they proclaim a specific affiliation: I represent the United States. Thats because the Justice Department has the responsibility by statute to represent the interests of the nation. That obligation to act on behalf of the nation has also motivated the Departments legal advice on a question central to the integrity of our democracy until now. Recent arguments show that the Department is putting President Trumps interests before the nations....
Trumps personal lawyers have argued that the emoluments clause allows Trump and all federal officials to accept unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments, as long as those payments are in the form of commercial transactions with a business owned by the federal official. Contradicting its entire history, the Department adopted Trumps lawyers argument, contending that the emoluments clause only prohibits compensation in exchange for a personal service in his capacity as [an] officeholder in other words, a bribe.
Under this new interpretation of the emoluments clause, the governments engineers and scientists would still be prohibited from accepting travel reimbursements from a foreign government, but any federal official who owns a company may accept unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments through commercial transactions. In effect, the Justice Department now claims that our founders only wanted to prohibit officials from receiving a second salary from a foreign government....
Trump wants to personally benefit from foreign government payments, and therefore seeks a narrow interpretation of the emoluments clause. He has a right to advocate for that narrow interpretation, but it is his personal attorneys not the Justice Department that should make such arguments. While we do not know the exact source of this new logic, Trumps Justice Department is effectively acting as if it is a private law firm. Government employees are supposed to act in the public interest, not anyones personal interest. This is a fundamental principle of government ethics. If Justice Department lawyers are going to say that they represent the United States, they better have the interests of the country not the financial interests of the President at heart.
Trumps personal lawyers have argued that the emoluments clause allows Trump and all federal officials to accept unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments, as long as those payments are in the form of commercial transactions with a business owned by the federal official. Contradicting its entire history, the Department adopted Trumps lawyers argument, contending that the emoluments clause only prohibits compensation in exchange for a personal service in his capacity as [an] officeholder in other words, a bribe.
Under this new interpretation of the emoluments clause, the governments engineers and scientists would still be prohibited from accepting travel reimbursements from a foreign government, but any federal official who owns a company may accept unlimited amounts of money from foreign governments through commercial transactions. In effect, the Justice Department now claims that our founders only wanted to prohibit officials from receiving a second salary from a foreign government....
Trump wants to personally benefit from foreign government payments, and therefore seeks a narrow interpretation of the emoluments clause. He has a right to advocate for that narrow interpretation, but it is his personal attorneys not the Justice Department that should make such arguments. While we do not know the exact source of this new logic, Trumps Justice Department is effectively acting as if it is a private law firm. Government employees are supposed to act in the public interest, not anyones personal interest. This is a fundamental principle of government ethics. If Justice Department lawyers are going to say that they represent the United States, they better have the interests of the country not the financial interests of the President at heart.
http://time.com/5581308/trump-emoluments-justice-department/
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The Justice Department Suddenly Changed Its Mind About the Constitution to Defend Trump's Businesses (Original Post)
mia
May 2019
OP
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)1. Got it in one, Time; good job
The Department of Justice is acting more and more each day as if they are President Trump's personal law firm.
Freethinker65
(10,119 posts)2. So set up a business and bribes funneled to it are now acceptable?
That seems exactly what the founding fathers had in mind. Who are they kidding??
duforsure
(11,885 posts)3. trump is now picking which laws
He and only those he chooses can abide by , and which ones they can now ignore. And which ones he can use to prosecute others with that oppose him. Yet he claimed he the Law and Order candidate.
safeinOhio
(32,764 posts)4. Payments are suppose to go to the Prince.
Pay Don Jr. thats the way it works in other banana republics.
Baitball Blogger
(46,787 posts)5. The will of the GRU must be defended!