Donald Trump and his family failed to report nearly $300,000-worth of gifts they received from foreign governments between 2017 and 2020, including a “larger-than-life-sized painting” of the former president that may currently reside at his Mar-a-Lago resort, according to a new report by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and supporting documents obtained by CNN.
Over 100 gifts from foreign officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, with a total value of over a quarter of a million dollars, were never disclosed to the State Department by Trump and members of his immediate family as required by law, the report says.
House Democrats say the discovery of these unreported foreign gifts, including 17 from Saudi Arabia with a total value of more than $48,000, “raises significant questions about why former President Trump failed to disclose these gifts to the public” and whether they may have been used to influence US policy under the previous administration. The report does not provide any specific evidence that US policy was influenced by the gifts.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told CNN that the fact these items were never reported and some are now missing “suggests serious violations of the foreign Emoluments Clause.”
“That part of the Constitution is America’s original anti-bribery law,” Raskin said, noting lawmakers could make criminal referrals if there is evidence to warrant doing so.
“But in truth, Congress on a bipartisan basis needs to legislate to build meaningful enforcement mechanisms into the Emoluments Clause,” he added. “This will force us to recover the wisdom of the framers who were emphatic that people in public office, not be on the take from foreign governments.”
House Democrats have sought to…
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