Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after Judge Peter J. Messitte’s ruling in D.C. and Maryland v. Trump in the District of Maryland. Judge Messitte rejected President Trump’s argument that payments made by foreign governments to the Trump Hotel do not qualify as “emoluments” under the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause, allowing the case to continue moving forward.

“The courts have now firmly rejected President Trump’s ludicrous argument that the payments his business receives from foreign leaders are not, in fact, payments from foreign leaders covered by the Foreign Emoluments Clause. As we have argued in our own case, the plain text of the Constitution could not be clearer: the President may not accept any benefit from a foreign government without first obtaining the affirmative consent of Congress,” Blumenthal and Nadler said.

“This ruling shows that the President is not above the law – not in this legal action, or in ours, brought by nearly 200 members of Congress to enforce the Foreign Emoluments Clause. While the D.C. hotel is one of the most visible means by which President Trump is violating the Constitution’s bedrock anti-corruption provisions, his violations run much further afield. That is why we are working to hold this President accountable for every foreign emolument President Trump is accepting, not only the ones he’s accepting at his D.C. hotel.”

###