Appeals Court Tosses ‘Emoluments’ Lawsuit Against Trump Brought by Congressional Democrats



WASHINGTON, Feb 7 – A U.S. appeals court on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by Democratic lawmakers alleging President Donald Trump’s overseas business dealings violate the U.S. Constitution’s anti-corruption “emoluments” clauses.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said a group of more than 200 Democratic lawmakers lacked legal “standing” to bring the case in the first place.

“The Members can, and likely will, continue to use their weighty voices to make their case to the American people, their colleagues in the Congress and the President himself, all of whom are free to engage that argument as they see fit,” the decision said.

The lawsuit was brought in 2017 by 215 congressional Democrats including Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

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It is one of a trio of cases against Trump over the rarely tested emoluments clauses, which prohibit presidents from taking gifts or payments from foreign and state governments.

The decision comes in the wake of another Trump victory earlier this week.

The president was acquitted as expected in his impeachment trial by the U.S. Senate Wednesday, getting total support from all but one Republican: Utah’s Mitt Romney.

The pair of party-line votes on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of justice both fell well short of the 67 Senators needed to remove Trump from office. All 52 Republicans voted against conviction on the charge of abuse of power. Only Romney voted for conviction on the charge of obstruction of justice as he hours earlier promised to do.

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(Reporting by Jan Wolfe Editing by Chizu Nomiyama. Pluralist contributed to this report.)

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