Donald Trump Impeachment: Los Angeles City Council Votes To Remove Trump Before First Year
Los Angeles City Council does not wish to see Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America. The city council has passed a resolution to Congress urging to look into the president’s recent action that may lead to his impeachment just before his first year as the president ends.
Earlier on Friday, the city council passed a resolution by 10 votes to zero calling for Congress to look into whether Donald Trump has breached the Foreign Emoluments Clause, reports Independent. The council has alleged that President Trump may have breached the Foreign Emoluments Clause after accepting financial benefits from a foreign power.
The United States’ Foreign Emoluments Clause
According to the United States’ Constitution, the Foreign Emoluments Clause is as follows
“No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”
L.A. Council member Bob Blumenfield drove the resolution and in a statement, he asserted that “if he [Donald Trump] is not going to come clean and show the American people that his hands are clean of potentially illegal foreign money in investments, then we must demand that Congress use their power to investigate the situation.”
Mr. Blumenfield further stated that their resolution is not about president’s immigration policies, or his efforts to repeal Obamacare. According to Mr. Blumenfield, if a foreign embassy hosted an event or stayed at a hotel where the president’s name is branded, then this could constitute a violation of the clause.
“This is not about his anti-choice positions, or his anti-immigrant policies, or his efforts to deny millions of Americans health care, or his misogynistic words and deeds, or any of his positions I find odious,” Blumenfield clarified. “This is about conflicts of interest.”
Did Donald Trump Violate The Foreign Emoluments Clause?
According to an earlier report from The Washington Post, it is uncertain whether President Trump has violated the clause or not. Before the Los Angeles City Council, a liberal group filed a lawsuit alleging that President Trump had violated the mentioned clause.
In their official complaint, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked a federal judge to stop President Donald Trump’s business from taking payment from the foreign countries and their respective agents.
“A federal officeholder who receives something of value from a foreign power can be imperceptibly induced to compromise what the Constitution insists be his or her exclusive loyalty: the best interest of the United States of America,” the group wrote in its legal filing.
During that time, President Donald Trump dismissed the lawsuit as “without merit” during a White House press conference in January. During that time, he even pledged that he would donate any profits they will earn from foreign governments to the United States Treasury.
In his statement, Mr. Blumenfield further claimed that the new Trump Tower, which will open in Manila, will earn the president millions of dollars.
“Every day more alarming information comes out regarding Trump’s business dealings and brazenness about the lack of transparency and conflicts of interest,” he added.
In January, President Trump announced that he was handing over his business empire by transferring his assets to a trust managed by his son to avoid conflict of interest.
As of this writing, an official statement from the White House is awaited. Keep checking this space for latest news on President Donald Trump’s impeachment and the recently passed resolution by the Los Angeles City Council.
[Featured Image by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]
