POLITICO
Congress needs to take the baton now to prevent presidential corruption. Here’s how.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File
By KARL RACINE, BRIAN FROSH and NORMAN EISEN
02/08/2021 04:30 AM EST
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Brian Frosh is the attorney general for Maryland.
Mr. Eisen is their former co-counsel in the emoluments litigation and served as President Obama’s ethics czar. He now serves as outside counsel for the nonpartisan Voter Protection Program.
Three and a half years ago, we took President Donald Trump to court over unconstitutional payments he received from foreign and domestic governments through his hotel in downtown D.C. while serving as president. Recently, the Supreme Court declared that our lawsuit and Trump’s appeal of it were moot given that President Joe Biden had taken office. Trump’s departure from the White House may have effectively terminated the case against him, but we still secured a significant victory: Judge Peter J. Messitte of the Maryland federal district court ruled in 2018, the year after we filed suit, that the Constitution forbids the president from receiving anything of value from a foreign or domestic government.