Rep. Jamie Raskin has taken a leading role in helping expose the foreign money Donald Trump received during his presidency. But that was just the first step. Politico reported late last week on the second.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, is escalating his standoff with former President Donald Trump over foreign government payments his businesses received during his presidency. Raskin, in a Friday letter to Trump, is demanding the former president return roughly $7.8 million, following a report released by Democrats last week that found his businesses accepted at least that amount from foreign governments during his time in office.
For those just joining us, it was a couple of weeks ago when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a devastating 156-page report called “White House For Sale.” Relying on documents from Trump’s former accounting firm, congressional researchers determined that the Republican’s businesses received “at least“ $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments — over a two year period — while Trump was in the White House, despite the prohibitions in the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
As an NBC News report added, China was “the leading spender, paying more than $5.5 million to Trump-owned properties.”
Last week, the subject came up during his latest town-hall event on Fox News, and the Republican didn’t make any effort to deny the accuracy of the Democrats’ findings. Asked about $7.8 million in foreign funds, the likely GOP nominee said, “I was doing services for that. People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, because I have the best hotels. I have the best clubs. I have the best clubs. I have great stuff. And they stay there, and they pay. I don’t get $8 million for doing nothing….”
It sounded an awful lot like a confirmation of everything House Democrats alleged in their report. As we discussed soon after, Trump’s defense, evidently,…
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