LAWSUIT AGAINST TRUMP OVER FOREIGN PAYMENTS EXPANDS
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A
nonprofit watchdog expanded a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of violating the
Constitution by letting his hotels and restaurants accept payments from foreign
governments.
The amended complaint
filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan adds a restaurant
trade group, whose members include nationally known chefs Tom Colicchio and
Alice Waters, and a hotel events booker in Washington, D.C. as plaintiffs.
It is intended to
address concern over whether the watchdog, Citizens for Responsibility and
Ethics in Washington, was itself harmed by Trump and had standing to sue at
all.
Trump is expected to
respond by April 21, and had said the original lawsuit filed on Jan. 23 had no
merit.
Spokesmen for the U.S.
Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment on
Tuesday.
The amended complaint
said Trump violates the Constitution's "emoluments" clause, which
bars him from accepting various gifts from foreign governments without
congressional approval, by maintaining ownership over his business empire
despite ceding day-to-day control to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
It said members of
Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United Inc, which represents more than
200 restaurants and nearly 25,000 workers, have improperly lost business, wages
and tips to Trump's competing businesses.
Jill Phaneuf, the
other new plaintiff, works for a hospitality company that books events in
hotels near Washington's "Embassy Row," which house foreign
diplomats, and claimed that Trump is costing her commissions.
The complaint said
such plaintiffs are injured when foreign governments try to "curry
favor" with Trump by favoring his businesses.
It said this has even
occurred since Trump took office, when China granted him trademark rights after
he pledged to honor the "One China" policy of his White House
predecessors.
"When asked why
defendant changed his position on the One China policy, and whether he had
gotten something in exchange from China, White House Press Secretary Sean
Spicer answered: 'The President always gets something,'" the complaint
said.
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/27/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-2272017-17)
U.S. District Judge
Ronnie Abrams, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama,
oversees the litigation.
The lawsuit seeks to
"uphold one of the most basic aspects of the rule of law: no one,
including the president, is above the law," Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the
University of California at Irvine's law school and one of the plaintiffs'
lawyers, said in a statement.
The case is Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington et al v. Trump, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-00458.
(Reporting by Jonathan
Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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