A liberal watchdog group has threatened to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump alleging that he is violating a Constitution provision by allowing his business to accept payments from foreign governments.
The Washington-based group, called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said it would be filing the lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on Monday.
Trump, according to the group, is in violation of a clause in the Constitution that prohibits his businesses from receiving anything of value from foreign governments.
It went on to say that since Trump didn’t divest his businesses consequent to winning the presidential race, he was receiving gifts from foreign governments via guests and events at his hotels, leases in his buildings and real estate deals abroad.
“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,” the group said in a statement.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that US counterintelligence agents have investigated communications that Trump’s National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had with Russian officials.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the paper said that Flynn is the first person in the Trump White House whose communications are known to have faced scrutiny as part of investigations by the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and the Treasury Department to determine the extent of Russian Government contacts with people close to Trump.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, however, said in a statement on Sunday night: “We have absolutely no knowledge of any investigation or even a basis for such an investigation.”