Trump's Vegas Partner Says Business Is Not Dividing Profits From Foreign Governments As Promised
Source: Forbes
Mar 22, 2017 @ 09:46 AM
Trump's Vegas Partner Says Business Is Not Dividing Profits From Foreign Governments As Promised
Dan Alexander , Forbes Staff
I write about Donald Trump and the people around him.
Two months ago Donald Trumps lawyer Sheri Dillon stood in Trump Tower and announced that the president would donate all profits from foreign governments at his hotels to the U.S. Treasurypart of an effort to resolve concerns that the he would be in violation of a little-known clause in the U.S. Constitution the day he took office. Now Phil Ruffin, who owns the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas in a 50-50 joint venture with the president, says thats not happening.
I dont know anything about that, said Ruffin, sitting in his office inside the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino, which he owns separately from the president. Is there a plan in place to hand over the profits at Trump's Las Vegas property eventually? They have to pay like everybody else, Ruffin said. But if he did chop away the profits from foreign dignitaries, would that affect the value of the hotel? Theyre not going to do that, Ruffin said, before repeating: Theyre not going to do that.
When subsequently questioned, the presidents son Eric Trump, who now serves as co-chief of his fathers business, directly contradicted Ruffin. Its something that our internal controlling teams take seriously, said Eric Trump, in his glass office in Trump Tower. At the end of the year, that money will go to the Treasury. Again, we didnt need to do it. Its probably the right thing to do. We didnt need to do it. But its something we are doing and will do. Well watch it closely.
So will ethics experts. The president is facing a lawsuit by a bipartisan group of government watchdogs and legal scholars who, even before questions about whether Trump was following through on his plan to hand over profits, claimed that he was violating a previously obscure section of the Constitution called the Emoluments Clause. The barely litigated clause prohibits federal officials from receiving any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state. Some foreign dignitaries have already told reporters they will stay at Trump hotels to try to ingratiate themselves with the president. Legal experts are divided over whether that sort of payment would violate the Constitution.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/03/22/phil-ruffin-trump-las-vegas-emoluments-profits-constitution/
Great scoop by @forbes.
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2naSalit
(86,308 posts)C_U_L8R
(44,983 posts)JudyM
(29,183 posts)whatever he earns on that.
SunSeeker
(51,504 posts)angrychair
(8,677 posts)Last edited Wed Mar 22, 2017, 08:07 PM - Edit history (1)
Regardless what happens to that money he is still benefiting, even indirectly, and donating would not seem to absolve him of violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
He, directly and/or indirectly and his family, directly and/or indirectly, are benefiting from money from foreign sources because he is president.
iluvtennis
(19,825 posts)angrychair
(8,677 posts)Not sure if it was bad autocorrect or bad spelling but it was definitely bad proof reading on my part ...corrected in my post