Trump poised to violate Constitution his first day in office, George W. Bush's ethics lawyer says

[highplainsdem]

Source: ThinkProgress

Friday evening, the Washington Post reported that about 100 foreign diplomats gathered at President-elect Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC to “to sip Trump-branded champagne, dine on sliders and hear a sales pitch about the U.S. president-elect’s newest hotel.” The tour included a look at the hotel’s $20,000 a night “town house” suite. The Post also quoted some of the diplomats saying they intended to stay at the hotel in order to ingratiate themselves to the incoming president.

-snip-

In an exclusive exchange with ThinkProgress, Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who previously served as chief ethics counsel to President George W. Bush, says that Trump’s efforts to do business with these diplomats is at odds with a provision of the Constitution intended to prevent foreign states from effectively buying influence with federal officials.

The Constitution’s “Emoluments Clause,” provides that “no person holding any office of profit or trust under” the United States “shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.”

The diplomats’ efforts in seek Trump’s favor by staying in his hotel “looks like a gift,” Painter told ThinkProgress in an email, and thus is the very kind of favor the Constitution seeks to prevent.

-snip-

Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-poised-to-violate-constitution-his-first-day-in-office-george-w-bushs-ethics-lawyer-says-73e14789a935#.obh62qro7

[Thinkingabout]

1. There will be a need to hold continuous ethics hearings about Trumps actions.

He needs to he held accountable for his actions and words.

[Martin Eden]

6. Legitimate need, but no action.

(unless the Republican-controlled Congress sees a chance to supplant Trump with Pence)

[rurallib]

24. The ethics committee will need to follow him around

to keep up on atrocities

[Thinkingabout]

26. He could never stand the test which Obama or the Clintons have.

[Kablooie]

30. Trump will be totally free to violate any Constitutional law he wants.

He will be impeachment proof 100% because there's no way in hell the Republican House will ever impeach him.

They will allow him total powers of a dictator, completely ignoring the Constitution, because to do otherwise would jeopardize any Republican's re-election, not to mention to suffer the retaliation that Trump would exert.

[Thinkingabout]

35. Perhaps he will get lots of voters out to the polls in the midterm, we were in the majority

before and we can be again.

[wordpix]

36. true but his holdings will be with Ivanka and Trump Jrs so

his "blind trust" protects him

Meanwhile, "Hillary for Jail" is a top priority

[JudyM]

2. What!!!? But then, should we really be surprised?,

[stopbush]

3. Trump is going to do whatever he wants. If he can rub the nose of the law in it,

all the better.

The R Congress and courts will do nothing to stop him, because as a minority party ruling over a majority that disagrees with them on just about everything, they know that breaking the law only benefits them.

[Initech]

15. And with no opposition he'll get to stack the courts and SCOTUS in his favor.

[bpositive]

19. Yep

What's the vacancy count on the lowe courts? How many seats were not filled in the last 8 years? Very scary.

[SunSeeker]

4. That is insane. The hotel needs to be in a blind trust.

[mopinko]

13. dont even use that word. the best they could do is a chinese wall.

one wall that cheeto sporkhands is not ready to build, and wouldnt honor anyway.

he cannot unknow his assets. he cannot be blind to skyscrapers. there is no executer on the planet that can hide the workings of the world from the president of the united states.

it just cant, legally, be done.

[rzemanfl]

17. I am stealing "cheeto sporkhands."

We live in a kleptocracy, so tough beans. I will reconsider if you PM me the copyright.

[mopinko]

29. i stole it from someone here.

might have been one of the colorful tweets from the uk- scotland?

[rzemanfl]

33. Then there will be no honor between us.

Being thieves and all....

[elleng]

5. 'Trumps efforts to do business with these diplomats is at odds with a provision of the Constitution

intended to prevent foreign states from effectively buying influence with federal officials.'

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. That's only the first day.

Every day there will be another opportunity for him to use the Constitution as toilet paper.

[0rganism]

8. we're going to need an "outrage of the week" feature at DU

the violations and outright lawbreaking are going to come fast and furious, probably more than 2 or 3 per day, and after a couple months of boring pseudo-hysterical media coverage, it will just become the "new normal". there needs to be some kind of compilation, a record that filters out the trivial bullshit from the truly illegal, and publishes commentary on the worst of these crimes frequently, but not daily.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. I don't want us to get outrage fatigue

with the result that we accept all this shit as normal. It's coming so fast and heavy right now that I'm afraid that's just what will happen, and then we're really in trouble.

[Lucinda]

11. Week?

It's daily for me....and sometimes hourly!

[0rganism]

21. which is why it needs to be filtered and prioritized

i don't know about you, but i can't really focus on various aspects of each stinker dropped by His Donaldness, and he's not even the president yet. there's no way our ADHD media can grasp, let alone convey understanding of, all these scandals as they occur: they'll end up chasing their tails. that may even be part of his strategy: do so much annoying crap that the real crimes can float by along with far-too-numerous instances of shameful and repulsive behavior.

to the extent a chronicle of his misdeeds is to have any value, there must be extended analysis of the most egregious of the Trump administration's actions, along with simple enumeration of more minor failures and general foolishness.

otherwise... "Squirrel!"

[moonscape]

12. In fairness, he has no clue what the Constitution says, or

even what is vaguely legal.

[napi21]

20. With all the lawyers he's supposed to have, at least ONE of them should attempt to keep him out

of trouble. Of course, with all the law suits he's involved in, maybe THEY CAN'T convince him that there are things he CANNOT DO! TTheir job will be to make the trouble he gets in go away.

[moonscape]

22. Sadly, I agree. n/t

[NastyRiffraff]

9. Trump doesn't care about the Constitution.

I thought Dubya was bad when he said it was "just a piece of paper" (or words to that effect).

[geomon666]

14. Crooked Hillary

Emails

[rzemanfl]

16. Dubyah had an ethics lawyer?

Imagine that.

[Sunny05]

18. Yes, huge problem

and more reason to call House Oversight Committee and your senators & reps, whether or not you think difference will be made. Worth trying, esp. if enough people call and pressure. Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 violation.

[2naSalit]

23. I smell

grievous changes to the Constitution in the very near future.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. And we thought Cheney made money in the office.

[DFW]

27. Maybe they'll use Henry Hyde's excuse

While head of the House Judiciary Committee that led the impeachment of Bill Clinton for lying about adultery, it was revealed that pious Catholic Henry Hyde had been involved in an extra-marital affair of his own earlier.

Hyde said his affair was different, and chalked it up to "youthful indiscretions." The Inquisition, er, I mean, impeachment continued as if nothing in he way of hypocrisy had occurred.

Since Republicans will be running the show, and the one god any of them truly worships is money, I'm sure Trump could sell condos in the Trump Tower from a special Trump Real Estate office in the West Wing, and have a rack with brochures in the Oval Office. The Republican Congress wouldn't do a thing, and no one who voted for him would see anything wrong with it. Fox Noise would explain the legality of it all, get plenty of advertising revenue from Trump in return, and prosecution would be "off the table" when the next Democratic Congress takes office.

[StatGirl]

28. Bribery is an impeachable offense

It's listed in the Constitution along with treason and "high crimes and misdemeanors".

[kebob]

31. When George DUBYA Bush's Ethics Advisor is Throwing Shade...

We are so fucked!

[cbdo2007]

32. So this whole thing is just an advertisement after all.

[greymattermom]

34. So once he's president

can he have an army of private lawyers to defend him against acts that are unconstitutional? How does that even work?

[wordpix]

39. right up to the Supremes with Don's pick of justices

I think Pres O should appoint his man.

[Ligyron]

37. Hey, anybody else going to the inauguration in Jan?

I'm burying dozens of eggs now in the hot FL sand so they'll be good and ready.

Tomatoes haven't sprouted yet but they'll be ripe by then too.

I promise.

[wordpix]

40. the gun toters are what scares me - I would not go near

the Capitol, Nat'l Mall or back to the Wash Monument with all the crazies who will crowd in there

[LongTomH]

38. At least this Irish legislator isn't going along!