public Pension Funds Profit Trump Possible Shady Russian Deals
I bet you didn’t know you were contributing to Donald Trump. If you are a teacher in Texas, a police officer in New York, or one of the nearly 2 million participants in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), your pension dollars help make Donald Trump richer and more powerful. They may also be supporting possibly shady business deals between Russians and the Trump Organization.
According to a report distributed by Reuters, public pension funds in at least seven states invest millions of dollars in the CIM Group that owns the Trump SoHo Hotel in New York City and pays a Trump company to operate it. CalPERS paid CIM $1,722,418 in management fees for the first three months of 2017.
Two public interest advocacy groups, Free Speech for People and the Courage Campaign, are organizing a campaign to get the pensions to divest from the Trump projects. They charge “The money used for this investment comes from mandatory deductions from the paychecks of public employees. These employees are thus forced to indirectly subsidize President Trump beyond the Constitution’s mandate of a fixed salary.” Constitutional lawyers questioned by Reuters expressed concern that the investments, which produce payments to the Trump organization and Donald Trump, violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a federal lawsuit charging that Trump’s business holdings violate the Constitution’s “emoluments clause,” which makes it illegal for government officials to “accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.” The American Civil Liberties Union is considering a suit against Trump for using his position as President to attract business away from other hotels. A White House spokesperson dismissed all the accusations as “partisan politics.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/24/1683381/-Public-Pension-Funds-Profit-Trump-Possible-Links-to-Shady-Russian-Deals-Alan-Singer-HuffPost
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