RichmondConfidential – Richmond is on the record as the first city in the United States to call for an investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s business dealings are creating a conflict of interest for him in his new role of president. On February 21, the Richmond City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a congressional probe into whether such conflicts might create grounds for impeachment.
Richmond’s Resolution no. 12-17, which was introduced by city councilmember and former mayor Gayle McLaughlin, asks for an investigation focused on the president’s businesses. It alleges that from the beginning of his presidency, Trump has violated the “foreign emoluments” clause and the “domestic emoluments” clause of the Constitution, which forbids the president from receiving emoluments from any king, prince, foreign state or the United States. “Emoluments” refers to financial benefits such as cash payments, goods and services, subsidies, tax breaks, credit extension and favorable regulatory treatment.
According to the resolution, “Donald J Trump… owns various business interests and receives various streams of income from all over the world,” and these include “emoluments from foreign governments, states of the US, or the US itself.” And, it continues, scholars and experts have warned the president that “unless he fully divested his businesses and invested the money in conflict-free assets or a blind trust, he would violate the Constitution.”
“I have received many emails and phone calls from people all over the nation thanking me and the city council for being the first city to do this. Many have said it gives them hope for the future,” McLaughlin said of the February vote.
“There is much fear and concern about the Trump administration, and rightly so. Urging Congress to investigate impeachment due to the president’s business holdings is important to find out if there are conflicts of interest that he has,” she said.
Richmond Mayor Tom Butt said he was not surprised when the city council approved the resolution. “I knew the people [who voted for the resolution] will support it. And I had already been a critic of Trump and the Trump administration,” Butt said. “I don’t like what he’s doing about the environment, I don’t like what he’s doing about climate change, I don’t like what he’s doing about immigration, I don’t like what he’s doing about education. He’s just against everything that I believe in and I worked for.”
