"The Constitution" has something called The Emoluments Clause. That's just a fancy, 18th century word for no foreign government payments. And Donald Trump is collecting foreign government payments and other benefits throughout his business.It is a direct violation of "The Constitution" and unless he divests, not just operations, he must divest from all business interests or he will be in violation of "The Constitution" from day one.
Norman L. EisenWhat about the golf courses?What about the huge foreign bank loans?What about the condos and the apartments that they sell, the promoting and the trademarks?[ Jason] Chaffetz should be investigating the president-elect's impeding violation of the constitution, not this poor government official who is just trying to do his job. And Mr. Chaffetz has endorsed that unconstitutional plan.
Norman L. EisenInstead of investigating the fact that the president-elect [Donald trump] is going to be violating "The Constitution" with these flows of foreign fighters, they admit they have a problem. They say, oh, well, we won't - his lawyers said well, we want take the profits in the hotels.
Norman L. EisenThere's a Russia angle to all this, because remember, we don't have Donald Trump's tax returns. He did a very - relative summary, 104 page campaign financial disclosure. One year of tax returns, reportedly - we've seen the pictures, 12,000 pages. And tax returns are replete with his foreign interests, including, perhaps, his Russian interests. That may be the reason he doesn't want to turn over his taxes.
Norman L. Eisen