Trump claims immunity, asks court to toss foreign payments suit

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has again asked a U.S. court to dismiss a suit accusing him of flouting constitutional safeguards against corruption by refusing to separate himself from his business empire while in office, claiming “absolute immunity.”

The lawsuit, filed by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia, accused Trump of violating the U.S. Constitution’s “emoluments” clause that bars U.S. officials from accepting gifts or other payments from foreign governments without congressional approval. The same clause also bars the president from receiving gifts and payments from individual states.

“If Plaintiffs want to sue the President for acts taken while in office, they must sue him in official capacity. But he is absolutely immune from any suit, including this one, seeking to impose individual liability premised on his assumption of the Presidency itself,” Trump’s lawyer William Consovoy wrote in a court filing on Tuesday.

“The Supreme Court has concluded that the costs to the Nation of allowing such suits to distract the President from his official duties outweigh any countervailing interests. That choice must be respected,” Consovoy added.

-snip-

POLITICS MAY 2, 2018 / 10:27 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Susan Heavey
3 MIN READ


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-emoluments/trump-claims-immunity-asks-court-to-toss-foreign-payments-suit-idUSKBN1I31Y6

[TranssexualKaren]

1. Tell me if I have this right?

Because he is president he is immune to constitutional restrictions upon the office of the president...

994days, 22 hours and 21 minutes...Just shoot me!

[turbinetree]

3. and you forgot that he has lied over 3002 times and counting

[turbinetree]

2. First of all your sexual predator, second your a traitor, and third your not some king

that is above the law...................you really are a lying narcissistic asshole.................

I really do hope you feel that a blue wave is crashing down on your malignant body every night when you try to go sleep.............so that it drives you further into the bat shit idiot that you are ..............................

[SonofDonald]

4. "Distracts the president from his official duties"

Golfing is an "official duty"?

[zentrum]

7. No, of course not.

Only golfing at your own golf course is an official duty.

[angrychair]

14. Only "golfing while white"

Is an official duty.

[RockRaven]

5. It is a special kind of stupid

to claim your office gives you absolute immunity to violate a clause in the Constitution which specifically applies to your office.

Delaying tactic. But he's 1/3 of the way through the term and still making money off the office, so it's working.

[S.E. TN Liberal]

6. With all of his legal troubles, he would be much further ahead to admit to "insanity" than trying...

...for immunity.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. Consovoy's reasoning is legal incest

and his assumptions may not be as rigid as he himself thinks.

Read his words slowly, and closely. A lot of premises, a lot of unexplained conclusions.

This is sod wall.

[lagomorph777]

9. He might want to look up Paula Jones and Ken Starr

They already dispatched the silly claim that the President is above the law.

Never thought I'd say this: "Thanks Ken Starr! You deserve a drumroll from your brother Ringo!"

[alwaysinasnit]

10. Look at it from tRump's lawyer's side

They have no real defense so they have to make shit up (in order to earn their exorbitant fees). That is called being legally creative.

[C_U_L8R]

11. Trump trumps Trump

What a freaking idiot.

[riversedge]

12. in Manhattan in December threw out a similar lawsuit against Trump brought by another group of plain

sure hope these lawyers have better luck this time..


...Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, both Democrats, argued in their suit, filed last June, that local residents were harmed by unfair competition by Trump’s hotel and other businesses. Lawyers for the Republican president previously argued that such harm was speculative and difficult to link directly to Trump.
Trump fumes over release of Mueller questions

Trump, whose businesses include a host of real estate properties as well as golf courses and a Virginia winery, handed day-to-day management to two of his sons. But the plaintiffs said Trump has not disentangled himself and is vulnerable to inducements by people, including foreign officials, seeking to curry favor.

Frosh and Racine have indicated they will seek numerous documents related to Trump, including his tax returns. Trump has bucked precedent by not releasing his tax returns during his 2016 presidential campaign or as president.

A U.S. judge in Manhattan in December threw out a similar lawsuit against Trump brought by another group of plaintiffs.

[tikka]

16. The first suit was tossed because the judge ruled the plaintiff did not have standing n/t

[rurallib]

13. I hope he ends up in that super maximum prison in Colorado

the cancer that he is is very destructive to democracies.

[angrychair]

15. He is not claiming innocence but immunity

That is a very telling difference of approach.

[riversedge]

18. Yes, I hope this does not come to pass as it goes up the courts. Scary.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

17. Listen up, Spanky

No one is above the law. No, not even you. You thought you were going to just seize control of the government. Make the FBI go after your political opponents and your enemies (Lord, what a long list that must be.), make the CIA protect your international interests (How's that working out for you in Panama ?), make ICE throw out all the brown people (including the Hmong and the Vietnamese we PROMISED could stay) and get DOJ to punish, imprison (or kill) all the black people (I have lost count of all of the innocent who have been murdered by trigger happy LEOs), while you and your family of criminals bled the country dry with greed and corruption. I cannot wait for them to frog-march your Pepe ass out of the WH and throw your sorry fat butt in the paddy wagon.

New word for the day: American't, as in we are unable to process even one more single second of the daily shit show going on in the Oval Office.