Former President Donald Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million “from foreign states and their leaders” during his time in office, according to a new report by House Democrats.
The findings come from a years-long investigation from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in the report.
Democrats used records obtained from Trump’s longtime accounting firm, worked out as part of a lengthy court battle, plus publicly available information to track payments from at least 20 countries, according to the report. And in addition to the report, Democrats released hundreds of pages of documents detailing payments they found.
A bulk of those payments came from the Chinese government and state-owned business. But they cautioned that their figures were a “conservative” estimate and likely incomplete after Republicans dropped the investigation after taking over the majority last year, ending additional document production.
The release of the report comes as Republicans are nearing a decision point in their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which has focused on the business deals of his family members. Republicans voted to formalize that inquiry last month, even as several said they hadn’t yet seen a direct link between actions taken by the president and the financial arrangements.
Democrats and some ethics officials have argued for years that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids a president from profiting from foreign governments, after he didn’t divest himself from his real estate empire and other business holdings. And while Trump faced lawsuits over the issue, the Supreme Court declared two of the lawsuits moot shortly after he left office.
Democrats are expected to release a separate report on potential domestic spending violations, noting that documents they received raised “significant potential conflicts of interest and potential violations of the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause.”
And they are vowing to propose legislation to make reforms, though those bills could be stuck in limbo given Republicans’ narrow majority in the House. That legislative package is expected to include, among provisions, a requirement that the president and other senior executive officials disclose to Congress any foreign emoluments they received and set up a procedure to seek congressional authorization for receiving and keeping them.
“We will develop a package of proposed legislative reforms to ensure that all occupants of the Oval Office abide by the Constitution’s unequivocal language commanding loyalty to the interests of the American people,” Raskin wrote.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
