Fox Business pulls Lou Dobbs rerun featuring anti-Semitic conspiracy theory

In an accidental demonstration of just how pervasive the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory blaming secret Jewish plotters for orchestrating a "caravan" of Central American refugees, the Fox Business Network issued a condemnation of network guest Chris Farrell, of Judicial Watch, after the network unthinkingly re-ran last Thursday's episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight Saturday evening, less than a half-day after a white supremacist promoting the same broad conspiracy theory as Dobbs' guest murdered eleven Jewish worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Just moments ago, Lou Dobbs guest Chris Farrell (head of Judicial Watch) says Caravan is being funded/directed by the "Soros-occupied State Department". pic.twitter.com/QBSong7uk1

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 27, 2018

Judicial Watch is a Trump-allied fringe group that has enjoyed much attention on Fox and in other media circles in recent years. Farrell here is explicitly referencing a white supremacist theory that Jews, in this case the omnipresent supposed plotter George Soros, are secretly controlling or "occupying" federal government agencies. Why Farrell felt he could casually drop that particularly odious bit of anti-Semitism in a televised conversation with Lou Dobbs is, so far, an unanswered question.

The rebroadcast of the segment in the immediate aftermath of the anti-Semitic synagogue attack was widely condemned, resulting in a statement distancing the network from those views by network Senior Vice President of Programming Gary Schreier.

rest at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/28/1807953/-Fox-Business-pulls-Lou-Dobbs-rerun-featuring-anti-Semitic-conspiracy-theory?detail=emaildkre

The Republican Party promoted an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory: a week later, 11 people are dead

What once was an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory peddled by neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups has not just been elevated, in recent weeks, but adopted as campaign strategy by multiple Republican groups and office holders. The theory is that moneyed Jewish "puppet masters" are behind recent efforts to bring asylum-seekers and immigrants to America, part of a plan to destabilize white rule. It is a decades-old anti-Semitic trope by the far-right, but one that leapt to prominence in recent weeks with claims that a "caravan" of Central American refugees is the product of a devious plot by Holocaust survivor George Soros.

Rep. Matt Gaetz was overt in this. On October 17th he tweeted:

BREAKING: Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source!

The tweet has remained undeleted, even after Soros was the target of an attempted bombing and after an anti-Semitic white supremacist murdered eleven Jewish Americans in their synagogue, wounding several others. The accusation was entirely false, and remains entirely false, but that did not stop Donald Trump himself from obliquely promoting it in a televised rally the next evening.

The theory that George Soros is secretly responsible for nearly all political events in America–to an extent that far exceeds any other named American–continues to be both one of the most commonly expressed current anti-Semitic tropes and the one that regularly, and incessantly, finds its way to Fox News, to Republican lawmakers, to Republican election campaigns and PACs, and in statements by the Republican president. But it is not Trump that has been doing the heavy lifting on advertising, promoting and mainstreaming those notions: That role has been embraced by Republican Party leadership.

rest at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/28/1807914/-The-Republican-Party-promoted-an-anti-Semitic-conspiracy-theory-a-week-later-11-people-are-dead?detail=emaildkre

Trump's phony 'caravan' hysteria led to the Synagogue murders: Adam Serwer for The Atlantic

There is no question that had Donald Trump and his Fox News enablers not embarked on a cynical attempt to gin up public hysteria about that pathetic group of asylum-seeking migrants over a thousand miles away, eleven members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pa., would still be alive today.

Republicans can scream and howl all they want about that fact. It is irrefutable.

The proof is in the shooter's shared postings on social media that unequivocally show the "caravan" lie was not only a motivating factor, but the motivating factor that prompted the actual killings.

Prior to committing the Tree of Life massacre, the shooter, who blamed Jews for the caravan of "invaders" and who raged about it on social media, made it clear that he was furious at HIAS, founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish group that helps resettle refugees in the United States. He shared posts on Gab, a social-media site popular with the alt-right, expressing alarm at the sight of "massive human caravans of young men from Honduras and El Salvador invading America thru our unsecured southern border." And then he wrote, "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in."

As described in this article by Adam Serwer for The Atlantic, Trump and Fox News did their utmost during the month of October to turn this non-event into a "national emergency" for the sole purpose of animating Trump's racist base of electoral support in the upcoming midterm elections. Fox News  hyped its viewers anxieties about the "caravan" on a near-hourly basis. Trump claimed that "Middle Easterners" had infiltrated this ragtag group of migrants, while Vice President Mike Pence helpfully poured more gasoline on the fire, claiming that "outside groups" had funded the caravan.

rest at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/28/1807982/-Trump-s-phony-caravan-hysteria-led-to-the-Synagogue-murders-Adam-Serwer-for-The-Atlantic?detail=emaildkre

Top Republican defends anti-Semitic ads attacking George Soros the day after synagogue slaughter

Just a day after a gunman murdered 11 people and wounded six others at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, went on TV to defend anti-Semitic ads his organization has been airing in a congressional race in southern Minnesota. The ads are laden with anti-Jewish tropes and portray philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, as a malign puppet-master of the left. Nevertheless, in an appearance on a Sunday talk show, Stivers repeatedly insisted the ads are "factual" and said they have "nothing to do with calling for violence."

Of course, that's exactly the point of dog-whistles like these: They give bigots the ability to deny they're spewing hatred while speaking in coded language that white supremacists hear clearly. But much of the traditional media takes these denials at face value, helping the right to fool lots of people.

We, however, are not fooled. Images of Soros surrounded by stacks of cash while a narrator claims he "owns" Democrat Dan Feehan are an entirely unsubtle invocation of the hoary and hateful conspiracy theory that wealthy Jews control politics behind the scenes.

It's no surprise, though, that Stivers would stand behind this filth. Last week, just two days after Soros himself was the victim of an attempted mailbox bomb assassination, the NRCC began airing a second ad in Minnesota's 1st District that, yet again, featured Soros as a bogeyman. This is where we are now: Neither terrorism nor mass shootings are enough to deter Republicans from their hate-filled rhetoric.

rest at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/28/1807977/-Top-Republican-defends-anti-Semitic-ads-attacking-George-Soros-the-day-after-synagogue-slaughter?detail=emaildkre

Jewish leaders to Donald Trump: 'You are not welcome in Pittsburgh'

In the wake of Saturday's mass murder at the Tree of Life Synagogue, Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh have written an open letter to Donald Trump:

President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.

And while Trump continues to deny any culpability in this latest hate crime, these leaders are having none of it:

Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted.  You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday's massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.  

The murderer's last public statement invoked the compassionate work of the Jewish refugee service HIAS at the end of a week in which you spread lies and sowed fear about migrant families in Central America. He killed Jews in order to undermine the efforts of all those who find shared humanity with immigrants and refugees.

rest t https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/29/1808073/-Jewish-leaders-to-Donald-Trump-You-are-not-welcome-in-Pittsburgh?detail=emaildkre

Canada upholds $15 billion Saudi arms deal after Khashoggi murder

In the nearly four weeks since the Saudi regime had journalist Jamal Khashoggi murdered, Canada's Liberal government has gone out of its way to avoid criticizing Riyadh, while insisting Canada must fulfill a $15 billion arms deal with the kingdom—a linchpin of US imperialism's domination of the oil-rich Middle East.

A Saudi citizen, Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul October 2 to obtain divorce papers needed to marry his Turkish fiancé. In the three weeks since his disappearance became internationally known, the Saudi regime has desperately attempted to deny responsibility. Initially it claimed that Khashoggi left the embassy, then that he had died during a "fist fight." More recently, it has said he was the victim of a premeditated murder carried out by "rogue" elements in the Saudi security forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has avoided publicly accusing Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the kingdom's effective ruler, of ordering Khashoggi's murder. But Turkish authorities have systematically leaked information contradicting Riyadh's claims, including video of the arrival in Turkey of a 15-man Saudi assassination squad. Everything points to the Saudi journalist having been tortured and beheaded inside the consulate, then his dismembered body being smuggled out of the premises.

With public outrage over Khashoggi's gruesome murder mounting, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government have spent the past two weeks twisting and turning in the face of mounting criticism from sections of the media and opposition over its insistence that Canada must fulfill its $15 billion contract to supply Riyadh with 740 LAVs (Light Armored Vehicles), manufactured at a General Dynamics plant in London, Ontario.

For the first week, Trudeau and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland claimed, as they have in the past, that Canada's international reputation would be damaged if it failed to "honour" the contract, while emphasizing that it was the Harper Conservative government that entered into the deal—Canada's largest ever arms contract—with Riyadh in 2014.

However, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has now come forward with a second argument. Cancelling the contract, he insists, would result in massive financial penalties. Initially, Trudeau spoke of a billion dollars, but by Thursday he was claiming Canadian taxpayers would be on the hook for "billions of dollars." According to Trudeau, the deal is subject to stringent confidentiality clauses such that the government cannot make the financial penalties section, or any other part of it, public. In other words, the government must be taken at its word.

Trudeau's claims to be in a legal bind are a callous and hypocritical subterfuge

rest at http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/29/khca-o29.html

rampant corruption in the UAW leadership; building luxury “cottage” for ex-president Dennis Williams

Reports that the United Auto Workers (UAW) is building an expensive, luxury retreat for former union president Dennis Williams are compounding already boiling worker anger over exposures of rampant corruption in the UAW leadership.

Several top UAW officials have already been convicted in the scandal involving the siphoning off of millions of dollars from union-management joint training funds into the pockets of union officials.

According to the Detroit News, the UAW is building a 1,885-square-foot three-and-one-half bath lakefront "cottage" at the union's Black Lake Conference Center in northern Michigan. The residence designated for the use of Williams will feature granite countertops, a wood-burning fireplace, stainless steel appliances, a wine cooler and a patio overlooking Black Lake.

Blueprints filed with Cheboygan County in 2017 indicate that the "cottage" will also feature a stone veneer and an aged metal roof. The kitchen will feature cherry cabinets with a "chocolate glaze finish" and walls covered with "white cedar shiplap." There will also be a hidden storage closet in the master bedroom, a feature sure to raise eyebrows given the large amounts of misappropriated funds pocketed by UAW officials.

The initial cost of the project was pegged at $285,000, a likely gross underestimate given the expensive finishing. A building contractor contacted by the World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter said, "I read the Detroit News report on Williams' lake house. $285,000 for an 1,885 square foot house might be appropriate for a worker's cottage that was finished with asphalt shingles, vinyl siding, modest windows, and laminate countertops. But this is a totally different animal.

"When you add antique copper roofing, stone veneers, a natural stone patio, picture windows, granite counters and cherry cabinets, the actual cost will easily be twice the amount they published. It's luxury, not a cottage."

A General Motors worker in the Detroit area contacted by the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter remarked, "With all the corruption going on you would think they would show some self-respect. It's brazen. It's back to the haves and the have-nots. That's a pretty nice perk for just four years (as president). It's ridiculous."

Nancy Johnson, a former top aide to Norwood Jewell, who headed the UAW Chrysler department during the 2015 contract negotiations, has implicated Williams, who retired in June, in the UAW corruption scandal. Johnson and other Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) negotiators were involved in a $9 million bribery scheme involving the siphoning off of money from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC) by Fiat Chrysler officials to influence contract terms while keeping the UAW "fat, dumb and happy," according to statements by indicted FCA officials.

rest at http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/29/lake-o29.html

Anti-Semitic violence erupts in America

The anti-Semitic massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has raised the crisis of American politics and society to a new level. More and more, the conditions in the United States have the character of a civil war, in which the most backward and reactionary forces are being encouraged and promoted.

Eleven people were killed in the slaughter in Pittsburgh, which occurred during religious services Saturday morning. Among the predominantly elderly victims were two brothers and a husband and wife, aged 84 and 86. Another victim was Rose Mallinger, 97, a survivor of the Holocaust. The shooter, Robert Bowers, has been charged with 11 counts of criminal homicide and 13 counts of ethnic intimidation.

While the United States is no stranger to anti-Semitism, an act of mass violence targeting Jewish people on this scale is unprecedented. As one commenter in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz wrote, the "illusion that 'this can't happen here' has been shattered. American Jews will wake up the next day to a new and far more frightening future, knowing not only that it has happened here, but that the attack could portend similar assaults in the future."

To understand the significance of this act it is necessary to place it not only in its domestic, but also its international and historical context.

The attack is a direct product of the open appeals to fascist violence by the Trump administration. Bowers was evidently motivated by a combination of rabid anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant chauvinism. He posted comments on social media just prior to the attack linking his hatred of Jews to the efforts of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), with which the Tree of Life synagogue is affiliated, to assist refugees fleeing Central America. "HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people," he wrote. "I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered."

The language he employed, including the use of "invaders" to refer to migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America caused by US imperialism, is that of the Trump administration. In a speech last week, Trump referred to the caravan of migrants heading for the US border as "an assault on our country." He called it an invasion that threatened to destroy "your neighborhoods, your hospitals, your schools." In remarks laden with anti-Semitic and fascistic tropes, Trump denounced those who "want to turn the clock back and restore power to corrupt, power-hungry globalists…"

The attack on in the synagogue follows the string of pipe bombs sent by a Trump supporter to prominent Democrats.

Trump himself is a symptom, however, not an explanation. What brought Trump to power?

rest at http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/10/29/pers-o29.html

Mom and Four-Year-Old Son Sue DHS to Reunite after Seven Months of Separation Under Trump’s Border Policy

October 25, 2018, Washington, D.C.  – A Salvadoran mother whose son was taken from her by U.S. immigration officials at the southern U.S. border seven months ago continues to fight for her right to be with her child. Today, she filed a lawsuit in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has violated the U.S. Constitution by refusing to allow her and her son to reunite.

The mother, referred to as "Ms. Q" in the case, was erroneously denied reunification in July in the wake of the Trump administration's disastrous "zero-tolerance" policy of prosecuting asylum seekers and taking their children. Last week, a Texas immigration judge refused to acknowledge that the gang-related threats and severe gender violence Ms. Q fled El Salvador to escape warranted asylum protection, but also effectively concluded she is not a danger to the community. While Ms. Q appeals the asylum denial, her wellbeing and that of her son continue to deteriorate as they remain separated. Ms. Q and her son are represented pro bono by attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC); and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

"The government took a three-year-old child from his mother's arms seven months ago," said Gibson Dunn attorney Michael Galas, "and has used pretext and confusion in refusing to reunite them ever since. Ms. Q and her son suffer more with each day they remain separated, without any legitimate reason and in violation of the Constitution. We are asking the court to immediately restore what little they have left — their family."

Ms. Q and her son were apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers soon after they entered the United States in March 2018. They were first held at a processing station and then put in wire cages for two days until they were separated. Since then, DHS has detained Ms. Q in two separate immigration jails in Laredo, Texas, while her son has been held in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services at a shelter in Chicago. DHS has deemed Ms. Q "ineligible" to reunify with her son based on an arrest warrant from El Salvador, but has refused to provide any evidence in support of the warrant, including at last week's immigration court hearing. Ms. Q has refuted the allegations with an affidavit from an attorney in El Salvador who reviewed the case against her and found absolutely no evidence of criminal activity or gang affiliation. A judge who reviewed evidence submitted by NIJC in July found she was not a danger to the community but nonetheless declined to give her a bond.

rest at https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/mom-and-four-year-old-son-sue-dhs-reunite-after-seven-months

Jimmy Carter asks Georgia Secretary of State and nominee for Governor, Brian Kemp, to step aside

October 22, 2018

To Secretary of State Brian Kemp:

…

In order to foster voter confidence in the upcoming election, which will be especially important if the race ends up very close, I urge you to step aside and hand over to a neutral authority the responsibility of overseeing the governor's election. This would not address every concern, but it would be a sign that you recognize the importance of this key democratic principle and want to ensure the confidence of our citizens in the outcome.

Sincerely,

Jimmy Carter

Full text of Carter's letter to Georgia secretary of state

Adding more and a link to the story on TPM:

The 94-year-old Carter's request, made in an Oct. 22 letter obtained by The Associated Press , is the latest turn in a campaign whose closing month is being defined by charges of attempted voter suppression and countercharges of attempted voter fraud.

Kemp has thus far dismissed Democratic demands that he step aside as Georgia's chief elections officer. But Carter attempted to approach the matter less as a partisan who has endorsed Abrams and more as the former president who's spent the decades since he left the Oval Office monitoring elections around the world.

continued https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/29/1808074/-Jimmy-Carter-asks-Georgia-Secretary-of-State-and-nominee-for-Governor-Brian-Kemp-to-resign?detail=emaildkre

Top Republican defends anti-Semitic ads attacking George Soros the day after synagogue slaughter

Just a day after a gunman murdered 11 people and wounded six others at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Republican Rep. Steve Stivers, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, went on TV to defend anti-Semitic ads his organization has been airing in a congressional race in southern Minnesota. The ads are laden with anti-Jewish tropes and portray philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, as a malign puppet-master of the left. Nevertheless, in an appearance on a Sunday talk show, Stivers repeatedly insisted the ads are "factual" and said they have "nothing to do with calling for violence."

Of course, that's exactly the point of dog-whistles like these: They give bigots the ability to deny they're spewing hatred while speaking in coded language that white supremacists hear clearly. But much of the traditional media takes these denials at face value, helping the right to fool lots of people.

We, however, are not fooled. Images of Soros surrounded by stacks of cash while a narrator claims he "owns" Democrat Dan Feehan are an entirely unsubtle invocation of the hoary and hateful conspiracy theory that wealthy Jews control politics behind the scenes.

continued https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/28/1807977/-Top-Republican-defends-anti-Semitic-ads-attacking-George-Soros-the-day-after-synagogue-slaughter?detail=emaildkre

While Equifax Victims Sue, Congress Limits Financial Class Actions

While Equifax Victims Sue, Congress Limits Financial Class Actions (marketwatch.com) 161

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday October 29, 2017 @02:34PM from the cause-and-no-effect dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a local NBC news report: Stories are starting to pour in about those impacted by last month's massive Equifax data breach, which compromised the private information of more than 140 million people. Katie Van Fleet of Seattle says she's spent months trying to regain her stolen identity, and says it has been stolen more than a dozen times. "I kept receiving letters from Kohl's, from Macy's, from Home Depot, from Old Navy saying 'thank you for your application,'" she said to CNN affiliate KCPQ. But she says she's never applied for credit from any of those places. Instead, Van Fleet and her attorney Catherine Fleming say they believe her personal data was stolen during the massive Equifax security breach... Fleming has filed a class-action lawsuit against Equifax, saying they were negligent in losing private information on more than 140 million Americans... "Countless people, I mean, I've really, truly lost count, and the stories that like Katie's, the stories I hear are heart-wrenching," Fleming said.
But are things about to get worse? Marketwatch reports: It will become harder for consumers to sue their banks or companies like Equifax... The Senate voted Tuesday night to overturn a rule the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau worked on for more than five years. The final version of the rule banned companies from putting "mandatory arbitration clauses" in their contracts, language that prohibits consumers from bringing class-action lawsuits against them. It applies to institutions that sell financial products, including bank accounts and credit cards. Consumer advocates say it's good news for companies like Wells Fargo or Equifax, which have both had class-action lawsuits filed against them, and bad news for their customers... Lisa Gilbert, the vice president of legislative affairs at Public Citizen, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., said the Senate vote shouldn't impact cases that are already ongoing. However, there will "certainly" be more forced arbitration clauses in contracts in the future, and fewer cases brought against companies, she said.

rest at https://goo.gl/DzrazT

Portuguese ISP Shows What The Net Looks Like Without Net Neutrality

"In Portugal, with no net neutrality, internet providers are starting to split the net into packages," argues a California congressman -- retweeting a stunning graphic. An anonymous reader quotes BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow: Since 2006, Net Neutrality activists have been warning that a non-Neutral internet will be an invitation to ISPs to create "plans" where you have to choose which established services you can access, shutting out new entrants to the market and allowing the companies with the deepest pockets to permanently dominate the internet... the Portuguese non-neutral ISP MEO has mistaken a warning for a suggestion, and offers a series of "plans" for its mobile data service where you pay €5 to access a handful of messaging services, €5 more to use social media; and €5 more for video-streaming services.
The congressman notes this arrangement offers "a huge advantage for entrenched companies, but it totally ices out startups trying to get in front of people, which stifles innovation."

rest at https://goo.gl/CgXXj8

America's F-35s Can't Fly 22% of the Time, Repair Facilities Six Years Behind Schedule

"[N]early 200 F-35s might permanently remain unready for combat because the Pentagon would rather buy new aircraft than upgrade the ones the American people have already paid for," according to one defense news site. And now Bloomberg reports: The Pentagon is accelerating production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 jet even though the planes already delivered are facing "significantly longer repair times" than planned because maintenance facilities are six years behind schedule, according to a draft audit. The time to repair a part has averaged 172 days -- "twice the program's objective" -- the Government Accountability Office, Congress's watchdog agency, found. The shortages are "degrading readiness" because the fighter jets "were unable to fly about 22 percent of the time" from January through August for lack of needed parts.

The Pentagon has said soaring costs to develop and produce the F-35, the costliest U.S. weapons system, have been brought under control, with the price tag now projected at $406.5 billion. But the GAO report raises new doubts about the official estimate that maintaining and operating them will cost an additional $1.12 trillion over their 60-year lifetime.
Slashdot reader schwit1 writes, "This is akin to buying an exotic car you can barely afford, without also budgeting for insurance, repairs, and tuneups."

rest at https://goo.gl/yW6Kio

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) suing Trump over EMOLUMENTS

from http://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-sues-trump-emoluments/


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2017 CONTACT: Jordan Libowitz
202-408-5565 | jlibowitz@citizensforethics.org  

CREW SUES TRUMP OVER EMOLUMENTS

Washington, DC—Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit to stop President Trump from violating the Constitution by illegally receiving payments from foreign governments. The lawsuit will be filed in the Southern District of New York when the court opens at 9 AM on Monday.

The foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution prohibits Trump from receiving anything of value from foreign governments, including foreign government-owned businesses, without the approval of Congress.

"We did not want to get to this point. It was our hope that President Trump would take the necessary steps to avoid violating the Constitution before he took office," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. "He did not. His constitutional violations are immediate and serious, so we were forced to take legal action."

Since Trump refused to divest from his businesses, he is now getting cash and favors from foreign governments, through guests and events at his hotels, leases in his buildings, and valuable real estate deals abroad. Trump does business with countries like China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, and now that he is President, his company's acceptance of any benefits from the governments of those countries violates the Constitution. When Trump the president sits down to negotiate trade deals with these countries, the American people will have no way of knowing whether he will also be thinking about the profits of Trump the businessman.

"President Trump has made his slogan 'America First,'" said Bookbinder. "So you would think he would want to strictly follow the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, since it was written to ensure our government officials are thinking of Americans first, and not foreign governments."

CREW is represented in the case by an all-star team of top constitutional scholars, ethics experts and litigators who have combined to argue 45 cases before the Supreme Court. The lawyers on the case include CREW's board chair and vice-chair Norman Eisen and Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyers for the last two presidents, Constitutional law scholars Erwin Chemerinsky, Laurence H. Tribe and Zephyr Teachout, and Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler PLLC.

-30-
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Jordan Libowitz at 202-408-5565 or jlibowitz@citizensforethics.org.

rest at http://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-sues-trump-emoluments/