Cummings Raises Grave Concerns About President’s Refusal to Comply with Emoluments Clause of Constitution

Releases New Document from Trump Organization

Washington, D.C. (May 24, 2017)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to George A. Sorial, the Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Counsel for The Trump Organization, raising grave concerns about the President’s refusal to comply with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and the Trump Organization’s deficient response to a bipartisan request for documents relating to the President’s promise to donate to the U.S. Treasury all profits from foreign governments.

“Unfortunately, your meager response does not include the vast majority of documents we requested in our letter,” Cummings wrote. “Instead, you provided only a single document—a glossy, eight-page pamphlet that contains a total of 40 sentences—and an email forwarding this pamphlet to various Trump Organization entities. This pamphlet raises grave concerns about the President’s refusal to comply with the Constitution merely because he believes it is ‘impractical’ and could ‘diminish the guest experience of our brand.’”

The pamphlet makes clear that the Trump Organization will not attempt to identify all foreign emoluments that are prohibited by the Constitution, stating: “To fully and completely identify all patronage at our Properties by customer type is impractical in the service industry and putting forth a policy that requires all guests to identify themselves would impede upon personal privacy and diminish the guest experience of our brand.”

“Complying with the United States Constitution is not an optional exercise, but a requirement for serving as our nation’s President,” Cummings said. “If President Trump believes that identifying all of the prohibited foreign emoluments he is currently receiving would be too challenging or would harm his business ventures, his options are to divest his ownership or submit a proposal to Congress to ask for our consent.”

Cummings reiterated his request for a briefing and for copies of all documents requested by the Committee.

Click here to read today’s letter from Ranking Member Cummings.

Click here to read the pamphlet provided by the Trump Organization.

Click here to read the letter transmitting the pamphlet to the Oversight Committee.