Trump Sued by D.C. and Maryland for Corruption

Well, this should be interesting, especially since Donald Trump has (laughably) argued that the president can't even have conflicts of interest.

Aaron C. Davis at the Washington Post: D.C. and Maryland to Sue Trump, Alleging Breach of Constitutional Oath.

Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland say they will sue [Donald] Trump on Monday, alleging that he has violated anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution by accepting millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since moving into the White House.

The lawsuit, the first of its kind brought by government entities, centers on the fact that Trump chose to retain ownership of his company when he became president. Trump said in January that he was shifting his business assets into a trust managed by his sons to eliminate potential conflicts of interests.

But D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) and Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) say Trump has broken many promises to keep separate his public duties and private business interests. For one, his son Eric Trump has said the president would continue to receive regular updates about his company's financial health.

The lawsuit, a signed copy of which Racine and Frosh provided to The Washington Post on Sunday night, alleges"unprecedented constitutional violations" by Trump. The suit says Trump's continued ownership of a global business empire has rendered the president "deeply enmeshed with a legion of foreign and domestic government actors" and has undermined the integrity of the U.S. political system.

Fucking right it has.

Provided a federal judge even allows the case to proceed, which is by no means a certainty, Racine and Frosh say that they will move swiftly to "demand through the discover process copies of Trump's personal tax returns to gauge the extent of his foreign business dealings," because, as Frosh explains, "we'll need to see his financial records, his taxes that he has refused to release," in order to understand the scope of Trump's constitutional violations.

Almost certainly, Congressional Republicans will have something to say about all this—just watch for them to be more outraged at Racine and Frosh for trying to hold the president accountable than they are at Trump for violating the emoluments clause and trying to evade accountability.

Which is precisely why Racine and Frosh had to step up in the first place.

Racine said he felt obligated to sue Trump in part because the Republican-controlled Congress has not taken the president's apparent conflicts seriously.

"We're getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be," he said.

Boom.