{"id":8490,"date":"2017-03-08T18:20:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T00:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impeachforpeace.org\/impeach_bush_blog\/?p=8490"},"modified":"2020-01-25T13:11:12","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T19:11:12","slug":"mainstream-outlets-normalizing-trumps-impeachable-offenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachforpeace.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/mainstream-outlets-normalizing-trumps-impeachable-offenses\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainstream Outlets Normalizing Trump&#8217;s Impeachable Offenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style='float: left; margin: 0px 15px 15px 0px; width: 250px;' src=\"https:\/\/impeachforpeace.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/impeach9.jpg\" data-wp-pid=\"11575\" alt=\"Blog Article Related Image\" width=\"200\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"7\" \/><b>MediaMatters<\/b> &#8211; During the first month of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, broadcast evening news shows and Sunday political talk shows devoted a total of just over 10 minutes to discussing the allegation that Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution by receiving foreign government payments. The scant reporting that did address this issue failed to mention that such conduct is an impeachable offense.<\/p>\n<p>Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution, known as the Emoluments Clause, creates a broad prohibition on federal officeholders, including the president, receiving payments from foreign governments without the consent of Congress. It <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section9\">reads<\/a>: \u201cNo title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The provision is much broader than a ban on receiving bribes. According <a href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/research\/2017\/01\/20\/media-should-report-president-trump-violating-constitution-and-its-impeachable-offense\/215063\">to legal experts<\/a>, even \u201cfair market value transactions that result in any economic profit or benefit\u201d count as an emolument, because the Founding Fathers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/gs_121616_emoluments-clause1.pdf#page=6\">wanted<\/a> a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2017\/01\/26\/trump-is-getting-payments-from-foreign-governments-we-have-no-idea-what-they-are\/?utm_term=.1841c1fa9423\">prophylactic<\/a>\u201d rule aimed at preventing even the appearance of corruption.<\/p>\n<p>A president\u2019s violation of the clause is an impeachable offense.<\/p>\n<p>According to legal experts, Trump\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/11\/government-ethics-and-legal-experts-pan-trumps-prohibited-and-conflict-ridden-plan-trump\/214983\">retention of an ownership interest<\/a> in the Trump Organization as president means that he has been violating the Constitution since <a href=\"http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/research\/2017\/01\/20\/media-should-report-president-trump-violating-constitution-and-its-impeachable-offense\/215063\">the moment<\/a> he took the oath of office. Indeed, just two days after the inauguration, the watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.citizensforethics.org\/press-release\/crew-sues-trump-emoluments\/\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> in federal court \u201cto stop President Trump from violating the Constitution.\u201d A press release about the suit notes that the president \u201cis now getting cash and favors from foreign governments, through guests and events at his hotels, leases in his buildings, and valuable real estate deals abroad.\u201d (Other presidents have avoided violating the clause by placing their assets into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/11\/30\/us\/politics\/donald-trump-business-president-elect.html\">an independently controlled blind trust<\/a>, something Trump has refused to do.)<\/p>\n<p>In what should serve as a prompt for investigative journalists, the exact nature of the emoluments Trump has received is unclear in many instances due to Trump\u2019s refusal to release his tax returns. As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hup.harvard.edu\/catalog.php?isbn=9780674659988&amp;content=reviews\">Emoluments Clause expert<\/a> Zephyr Teachout, an associate law professor who is a lawyer on CREW\u2019s lawsuit, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/posteverything\/wp\/2017\/01\/26\/trump-is-getting-payments-from-foreign-governments-we-have-no-idea-what-they-are\/?utm_term=.8f7bb57b592a\">explained<\/a> in <em>The Washington Post<\/em>, while some emoluments Trump is receiving are known &#8212; including rent paid by the Qatari state airline at a Trump property, licensing fees paid by several foreign countries for rights to the TV show <em>The Apprentice<\/em>, and construction permits granted by the Indian government &#8212; the full extent of his violations is unknown because \u201cTrump hasn\u2019t disclosed any information about his finances.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In spite of Trump\u2019s secretive business dealings, two concrete new violations emerged during the first month of his presidency.<\/p>\n<p>According to a February 9 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2017\/02\/trump-hotel-saudi-arabia-234878\">report<\/a> from <em>Politico<\/em>, \u201cA lobbying firm working for Saudi Arabia paid for a room at Donald Trump\u2019s Washington hotel after Inauguration Day, marking the first publicly known payment on behalf of a foreign government to a Trump property since he became president.\u201d The article notes that the payment \u201craises questions about whether it represents a violation of the foreign emoluments clause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 140%; font-weight: 500;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mediamatters.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/07\/mainstream-outlets-are-normalizing-trumps-impeachable-offense\/215566\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MediaMatters &#8211; During the first month of Donald Trump\u2019s presidency, broadcast evening news shows and Sunday political talk shows devoted a total of just over 10 minutes to discussing the allegation that Trump is violating the U.S. Constitution by receiving foreign government payments. The scant reporting that did address this issue failed to mention that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":11575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[125,124,76,123,107,127,126,106,105,77],"class_list":["post-8490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impeachment-related-oped","tag-calltoaction","tag-dumptrump","tag-impeach","tag-impeachtrump","tag-muslimban","tag-nofascistusa","tag-potus","tag-resist","tag-theresistance","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mainstream Outlets Normalizing Trump&#039;s Impeachable Offenses &#8226; Impeach for Peace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Citizen&#039;s impeach strategy. 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