Congressional Democrats are being allowed to forge ahead with their emoluments case against Trump after a federal ruling landed in their favor Tuesday. Democrats are expected to now begin obtaining financial records from the Trump Organization.
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan denied a request from Justice Department lawyers to pause the case to allow an immediate appeal to a higher court in a setback for the president. The Justice Department said it would make an emergency plea directly to an appeals court in Washington, a long-shot legal tactic that is rarely granted in ordinary litigation.
The closely watched case, brought by nearly 200 House and Senate Democrats, is one of several novel challenges that allege Trump’s ownership of private companies that accept foreign-government business may violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
“If the President succeeds in running out the clock, an entire presidential term will have gone by with the nation’s highest officeholder making countless foreign policy decisions under a cloud of potentially divided loyalty and compromised judgment caused by his enrichment from foreign states. That is precisely the nightmare scenario the Framers adopted the Foreign Emoluments Clause to avoid,” the members of Congress wrote in a previous court filing
“This case will be poised for resolution within six months; an immediate appeal would hardly materially advance its ultimate termination,” Sullivan noted in the 12-page ruling.
Game on.