Donald Trump needed to remain in energy “at all costs” as a result of he was making “millions” off of being president, a January 6 committee member has stated.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin appeared on Washington Journal on C-SPAN on Wednesday, saying that “to my mind, Donald Trump was really engaged in a lot of for-profit money-making activities in his administration, which would also explain his determination to stay in office at all costs”.
“The founders of the Constitution were determined to prevent that from happening”, he added. “That’s why we have the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which says that no president and no member of the federal government can accept presents, emoluments, which means payments, offices, or titles from foreign governments. And yet we know that Donald Trump was engaged in bringing millions of dollars into his hotels and golf courses and other commercial licensing deals and so on from foreign governments.”
The Independent has reached out to a spokesperson for Mr Trump for remark.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform launched a report in October final yr that stated that Mr Trump’s DC resort was paid thousands and thousands from international governments whereas nonetheless managing to lose $71m throughout Mr Trump’s time period in workplace.
The panel revealed lots of of pages of economic paperwork supplied by the General Services Administration.
The company leased the property, which is federally owned, to Mr Trump’s firm between 2013 and May of this yr, when the lease was offered to an investor group primarily based in Miami.
Marine One with US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump passes the Trump International Hotel (R) because it departs the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2021
(POOL/AFP through Getty Images)
As a situation of the lease, Mr Trump had to supply the monetary paperwork, The Washington Post reported.
Democratic Representatives Carolyn Maloney of New York and Gerald Connelly of Virginia stated final yr that the paperwork revealed that Mr Trump was paid round $3.7m by international governments and likewise acquired “preferential treatment” from Deutsche Bank.
The financial institution beforehand loaned Mr Trump $170m to renovate the resort.
The two Congressional Democrats stated on the time that the revelations “raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump’s lease with GSA and the agency’s ability to manage the former President’s conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant”.
The Trump Organization stated on the time that the claims have been “irresponsible and unequivocally false”.
“We have been great custodians of this iconic building, continue to have a great relationship with the GSA and are in full compliance with our leasehold obligations,” spokeswoman Kimberly Benza stated, in line with The Post. “Simply stated, this report is nothing more than continued political harassment in a desperate attempt to mislead the American public and defame Trump in pursuit of an agenda.”
“The Committee’s letter makes several inaccurate statements regarding Deutsche Bank and its loan agreement,” Dan Hunter, a spokesman for the financial institution, added to the paper.
