in 2018, the u.s. district court in maryland ruled racine and frosh s lawsuit could proceed. but in july 2019, a panel of three judges, appointed by republican presidents in the fourth circuit court of appeals, ordered that the case be dismissed. they found that maryland s and d.c. s ags didn t have standing to bring the lawsuit, and also found that the link between government officials patronage of the hotel and the hotel s payments to the president himself was simply too attenuated or weak. the president won this round, but keep in mind there are two other separate emoluments lawsuits, from a citizens action group, and one from house democra democrats. they re also still in the courts. that means the stage is still set to figure out whether donald trump really did violate the oath he took on day one of his presidency. preserve, protect, and
wealth potentially in the line of succession to the power of the presidency. reporter: in comparison, president-elect trump merely promised no new foreign deals. he has not die vested, and he has disclosed just what the law requires. and so the public is left asking questions. is donald trump making tax policy because tax policy is good? or is he making tax policy because there s loopholes in there for real estate developers like him that helps their wallet? as we try to make sense of all of that, katy and i decide to take a closer look at trump tower. here s a directory. so even if you wanted to figure out who lives here, who works here, this is it? this is the directory? yeah. this is just six things. trump store. ground level. trump cafe, ground level. trump grill, ground level. i will say, if you re thirsty for a coffee, it s easy to figure out where starbucks is,
covers green s annual dues. you re right on the beach. this is a spectacular estate. why do you need to be part of a club like mar-a-lago? my wife and i were new back in town here. we wanted to be part of the community. we had some friends who belonged so we joined the club. what is it like to be a member of mar-a-lago? as a host he s always been a very good host. that s the side of donald trump i always knew. all i can tell you is we re going to do a good job, okay? we re going to do a good job. donald trump s hospitality does not come cheap. make america great again! after the election, mar-a-lago doubled its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000. so is that what it costs to rub shoulders with the president of the united states? according to fellow billionaire jeff green, we re asking the wrong question. what i m most worried is, are his policies going to really damage our country, our world?
membership because i felt it would be a chance to go out and really address this president on how i felt, and i ve been able to do it. green doesn t see this as a contradiction. as a neighbor and fellow multibillion fair, he considers himself donald trump s peer rather than just a member of his club. local reporter christine stapleton gave me another perspective. she s written stories about mar-a-lago for more than 25 years. i think it s really important for us to know who is going in and out of mar-a-lago and who the members are, because of the proximity to power you have if you are a member of mar-a-lago. is anyone else getting any political benefit of being a member of mar-a-lago? yes, we ve identified four members of mar-a-lago who have been tapped for diplomatic positions.
salary or benefit, depending on which dictionary you use. the constitution bans a president receiving emoluments from foreign or domestic governments. is he in? great. constitutional law scholar john mac kyle explains why. nice to meet you. it s nice to meet you, welcome. we know what an emolument is, but there s discussion about what exactly it is. it s a weird word. it s a very unusual word. we re talking about whether the presidency can be turned into a cash register for donald trump. that s ultimately what we re talking about. the world emolument appears three times in the constitution. this is the foreign emoluments clause. you can see it s very elaborately written but the word any appears four times. indicating that the founders really wanted to be sweeping and all-encompassing. jacob, how are you? this is karl racine, the attorney general of washington, d.c., a democrat who, along with