This truly was a “phony case,” as Trump described it. And the ultra-liberal DC Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.
The court threw out a suit brought by Democrats charging the president with violating Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, the so-called emoluments clause. The clause makes it illegal for a president to receive gifts or money from foreign governments.
Democrats said that because one of Trump’s properties, the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and other businesses hosted foreign dignitaries and parties, he should be impeached, or something.
The three-judge panel ruled that the group of 200 Democratic congressmen who filed the suit in 2017 didn’t have standing to do so.
Trump hailed the decision, calling the lawsuit “another phony case,” as he prepared to board Marine One for the first leg of a trip to a community college in Charlotte to speak at the North Carolina Opportunity Now Summit.
“This is the DC Circuit and we just won the big emoluments case. I think it was a unanimous decision. This was brought by Nancy Pelosi and her group,” the president said.
“Just came out a few minutes ago, so I’ll be read it on the helicopter but it was a total win. This was brought by 230 Democrats in Congress on emoluments. It was another phony case. We won it unanimously.”
The judges were apparently disappointed that they couldn’t stick it to Trump.
A three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday did not rule on whether the president was violating the Constitution by profiting off foreign governments’ spending at his hotels. The judges unanimously said in a brief 12-page decision that the dispute centering around the Constitution’s emoluments clauses has no place in the court system.
“The Members can, and likely will, continue to use their weighty voices to make their case to the American people, their colleagues in the Congress and the President himself, all of whom are free to engage that argument as they see fit,” the judges wrote. “But we will not—indeed we cannot—participate in this debate.”
Maybe the Democrats could try to impeach the president. Hey! That’s a great idea…Oh, wait. Never mind.
Via PJMedia
