Blumenthal Announces Resolution Authorizing Senate Legal Action to Force Trump to Comply with Anti-Corruption Foreign Emoluments Clause

[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced a resolution to stop President Donald Trump from accepting payments and gifts from foreign governments, including a $400 million luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar and potentially millions funneled by foreign agents directly to the Trump family through a cryptocurrency scheme. The resolution is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

“To stop Donald Trump’s self-enriching lawless thuggery, and protect its own lawful powers, the Senate must invoke the Constitution through legal action in federal court. Having just defeated exploitive colonial despots, and fearing foreign influence on home-grown tyrants, the Framers explicitly prohibited the corruption that is becoming Trump’s trademark – accepting luxury jets and potentially millions in crooked crypto payments,” Blumenthal said.

“What the Framers never anticipated was the pathetic submission of Congress to the whims of a tyrant. I am introducing this resolution to demand that the Senate assert its authority and require Donald Trump’s compliance with the Constitution, and I’ll be calling for its passage on the Senate Floor. I challenge Senate Republicans to prove that they are more than mere lackeys to President Trump’s self-enrichment schemes and show that the Senate still has a spine by joining this effort.”

The resolution would authorize the Senate to take legal action to enforce Trump’s compliance with the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which requires the President of the United States and other all federal officials to seek and obtain the affirmative consent of Congress before accepting any benefits from foreign states. The Constitution’s Framers included such a requirement to protect against foreign influence on U.S. officials, and to ensure that those officials act in the national interest, instead of their own.

In 2017, Blumenthal and U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) led roughly 200 Members of the Senate and House of Representatives in taking legal action seeking to compel President Donald Trump to comply with the Foreign Emoluments Clause.

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