Raskin escalates Trump standoff over foreign government payments

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, is escalating his standoff with former President Donald Trump over foreign government payments his businesses received during his presidency.

Raskin, in a Friday letter to Trump, is demanding the former president return roughly $7.8 million, following a report released by Democrats last week that found his businesses accepted at least that amount from foreign governments during his time in office.

The Maryland Democrat is also asking Trump to turn over to Congress a “full accounting of the money, benefits and other emoluments ‘of any kind whatever’ you pocketed from foreign governments or their agents during your term as President and that you return the total sum of these foreign emoluments to the American people by writing a check to the U.S.”

Read the full letter.

Raskin’s letter is unlikely to spark Trump to return any money, or provide congressional Democrats with a fuller accounting of payments from foreign governments his businesses received during his presidency. But it could point to one investigative lane for Democrats if they win back the House majority in November, which would put Raskin in line to be the Oversight chair.

The Trump Organization didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

But in a statement last week responding to the Democratic report, they said that foreign profits during Trump’s presidency were donated to the Treasury Department, while also pointing out that one Chinese tenant in Trump Tower signed a 20-year lease in 2008, years before the Trump presidency. The statement also noted an inability to stop people from booking through third party platforms.

Democrats and some ethics officials have previously argued that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids a president from profiting from foreign governments, after he didn’t divest himself from his real estate empire and other business holdings.

Raskin, in his letter Friday, added that “the Constitution imposes a categorical prohibition on a president’s receipt of any payments from foreign governments without Congress’s consent — a prohibition that extends to all revenues, and not merely profits — attributable to spending by foreign governments.”

Asked during an Iowa town hall hosted by Fox News, if he would divest from his businesses if he wins a second term, Trump defended the payments.

“I don’t get free money. … I was doing services for that,” he said. “People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels because I have the best hotels, I have the best clubs. I have the best clubs. I have great stuff, and they stay there and they pay. I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing.”