A group of Democratic lawmakers in the United States Senate introduced a bill on Tuesday to bar any US President (and other top office holders) from accepting payments from agents of foreign governments during their term in office. The law, clearly aimed at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, is aimed at more closely defining and tightening the “Emoluments Clause” of the US Constitution.
The bill has no hope of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the run-up to the Presidential election on November 5.
In January, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a report which found that businesses with ties to the former President Donald Trump had, during Trump’s four years as the Chief Executive of the United States, received upwards of $7.8 million in foreign payments from twenty separate countries.
The law is important, said Senator Richard Blumenthal, because the centuries-long tradition of respect for the Emoluments Clause among Presidents and government officials. Trump’s “brazen” conduct of his relationships with foreign entities have, he said, broken that tradition and shows that clear rules are needed to enforce the anti-corruption provisions in the Constitution.
Blumnethal is one of the sponsors of the bill. Representative Jamie Raskin is championing the bill in the House.
The bill prohibits many federal officials, including Senators and Representatives, from receiving monies, either indirectly or directly, from foreign governments, ecen when those payments are made to businesses in which the elected official maintains a controlling beneficial interest.
The bill would also codify penalties for the receipt of such payments. The ban would expire two years after an official left office, except and unless Congress issued a special exemption.
Trump’s businesses hold real estate and other interests in numerous foreign countries, yet he neither divested from his position in those companies, nor did he place them in a blind trust during his term, as was the established custom.
James Cormer, Trump’s campaign chairman, has yet to comment on the matter.
