Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuits Over Foreign Payments At Trump Hotels
The end of Donald Trump's presidency has also brought an end to the lawsuits over foreign payments at his company's hotels.
The Supreme Court Monday declined to hear two cases concerning whether these payments violated the constitution's emoluments clause, the Associated Press reported.
The high court also ordered the lower court rulings thrown out and directed New York and Virginia appeals courts to dismiss the suits, declaring them moot because Trump is no longer in office. The outcome means no rulings will serve as legal precedent for the emoluments clause, a portion of the Constitution rarely used in U.S. history.
One of the cases was filed in June 2017 by the attorneys general of D.C. and Maryland, claiming payments from foreign and domestic government officials to Trump's D.C. hotel violated the emoluments clause. The other case, also filed in 2017, was brought by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, along with a series of restaurants and hotels in D.C. and New York that compete with Trump properties.
CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement Monday that the dismissal was only a result of Trump leaving office.
"This important litigation made the American people aware for four years of the pervasive corruption that came from a president maintaining a global business and taking benefits and payments from foreign and domestic governments," he said. "Only Trump losing the presidency and leaving office ended these corrupt constitutional violations and stopped these groundbreaking lawsuits.”
The dismissal decreases the legal risks for Trump as he returns to the private sector, with his company facing hundreds of millions in debt and struggling revenues.
The Trump Organization still faces lawsuits from New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Manhattan District Attorney over the company's financial practices, including whether it inflated property values to obtain tax breaks and loans.
Trump also faces an impeachment trial in the Senate over his alleged inciting of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. House members plan to deliver the article of impeachment to the Senate Monday evening, triggering preparations for the trial, NPR reported.
