Two new plaintiffs — an association of restaurants and restaurant workers, and a woman who books banquet halls for two D.C. hotels — plan to join a lawsuit alleging that President Trump has violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause because his hotels and restaurants do business with foreign governments. Both say that, as direct competitors of Trump’s restaurants and hotels, they may lose foreign clients, who may book with Trump properties to curry favor with the president. Jayaraman could not cite a specific instance in which a member of the group had lost a client to a Trump business. She declined to comment when asked if she could cite an example where a Trump hotel had taken her business away. The plaintiffs ask U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in New York to order Trump to stop violating the emoluments clause, and to release financial records to prove it.

Source: Washington Post April 17, 2017 23:37 UTC