23 Trump Businesses Ordered To Retain Records For Lawsuit Against The President
More than 20 businesses owned by President Donald Trump will be subpoenaed and required to produce records of business dealings as part of a lawsuit that alleges the president has been profiting from foreign and domestic governments through the continued ownership of his businesses, Bloomberg reports.
The preservation subpoenas, issued by the attorneys general in Maryland and the District of Columbia, target businesses including the Trump Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., and the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
“The ruling allows us to serve subpoenas to preserve evidence that will be invaluable if the court allows our case to proceed to the discovery phase,” Washington Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. “This ruling is an important first step in our litigation against President Trump for unlawfully receiving emoluments from foreign and domestic governments.”
Attorneys acting on behalf of the president have since requested the case be thrown out because Maryland and the District have not been negatively affected and the emolument clauses — which state that no person holding a title of nobility will accept gifts, remunerations, offices or titles without the consent of Congress — are not applicable to the business activities of the president.
An oral argument is set to take place in January.
