Tag: Clause

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Trump Family’s Deceptive Trade Practices

A CNN Special Report by Erin Burnett exposed some stunning deceptive practices employed by the Trump family in their real estate dealings. Some of the deceptive statements the Trumps used to lure in real estate investors are borderline criminal fraud. According to the CNN Special Report, the Trump family essentially embarked on real estate projects worldwide and then made false media pronouncements that their properties were sold out in an effort to lure in investors. Non-suspecting investors then pumped money into what they believed were very profitable Trump properties only to be hit by bankruptcy notices resulting in severe losses. The full CNN Special Report titled “The Trump Family Business” is available here but the relevant clip is below

In 2009 Ivanka Trump for example told CBS regarding the Trump Tower Toronto project, “We have projects all over the world that are incredibly successful and that are virtually sold out…from Hawaii to Toronto to Istanbul.” However according to Erin Burnett, bankruptcy papers filed for the Toronto project years later totally contradicted Ivanka’s statement to CBS. Turns out a whopping 75% of the “sold out” Toronto building remained unoccupied.

Similar shocking deceptive practices were also employed at Trump’s SOHO project where Ivanka told reporters in 2008 that 60% of the units had been sold. It later turned out upon further inspection that contrary to Ivanka’s assertion, only 15% of the units had been sold. Even more troubling about the SOHO project is the fact that there were email exchanges between Ivanka and Trump’s eldest son Don Jr showing that the two were willfully lying to investors about the occupancy rates at Trump SOHO. This apparently led to a lawsuit which the Trump family settled with the terms remaining secret.

Bottom line as Erin Burnett’s Special Report points out, a lot of these real estate investors who were lured into investing based on gross misrepresentations by the Trumps, ended up losing large sums of money. These were not just harmless sales gimmicks employed by the Trumps. Even though it is unlikely that any criminal prosecution could be initiated against Trump’s adult children(statute of limitations), the only decent cause of action for them given their current status in society(Presidential children) would be to make a public apology to the investors who got crushed by their deceptive trade practices.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com

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Trump’s Corruption Over New FBI Building

President Trump in a meeting with GSA Head Emily Murphy over FBI Building

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently did a bombshell segment in which she exposed what appears to be a blatant corruption case involving General Services Administration’s Emily Murphy and President Trump who appointed her to run that federal agency. The full maddow segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.

According to Maddow the entire corruption scheme revolves around plans to build a new FBI building to replace the old and dilapidated one that currently sits only a few blocks from Trump Hotel DC.It turns out the original plan was to abandon the current FBI site and instead build a sprawling state of the art FBI complex at some suburban DC location. The developer would then be allowed to tear down the current dilapidated FBI building that sits a few blocks from Trump Hotel DC and use that prime real estate location to develop any property of their choice.

It was well known that among the properties that would be developed in this prime real estate location would be a high end hotel–and therein lies the whole corruption scheme. The idea that there were plans to build a new high end hotel only a few blocks from Trump Hotel DC was one that clearly didn’t sit well with Trump and as you might have guessed already, the original plan to build a new sprawling FBI complex in suburban DC was abruptly scrapped and replaced with a new plan to tear down the old FBI building and build a new one at the same location.

Naturally all the alarms went off with this dramatic change of plans regarding where to build the new FBI building with Dems questioning the GSA Administrator whether Trump ordered her to make this decision. In her testimony before congress, GSA Administrator Emily Smith said the dramatic change in plans was entirely an FBI decision and had nothing to do with Trump.


Well there is concrete evidence now proving that the GSA Administrator made a bold faced lie to congress and that Trump indeed ordered her to make the dramatic change in plans regarding the location of the new FBI building–a clear cut conflict of interest for Trump. There is no question that this was a decision made to benefit Trump Hotel DC–the quintessential government corruption.

Bottom line GSA head Emily Murphy needs to be held accountable. Under normal times the stunning revelation by Maddow alone would have been enough to shame her into resignation. But given the current political climate we find ourselves in, there is no likelihood of that happening. Dems and the mainstream media must therefore demand that GSA Administrator Emily Murphy be held accountable not just for her blatant corrupt actions but also because she made a bold faced lie to congress–a felony.

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Federal Judge Says Emoluments Clause Lawsuit Against Trump Can Proceed



While most of the mainstream media was rightly focussed on the dramatic events surrouding Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation, another bombshell news broke yesterday but got little or no attention.

Turns out a federal judge has allowed the Emoluments Clause lawsuit brought by Congressional Democrats against Trump to proceed.


This is super big news because it means among other things, that Congressional Dems may be able to get Trump’s tax returns through the discovery process.


Yours Truly predicted months ago that the Emoluments Clause lawsuit brought by Congressional Dems was by far the strongest because they had standing to sue.


Turns out Yours Truly was right on the money. Strangly, senate Dems never asked Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings about the Emoluments Clause. Is there a way to find out now or is it too late?

Bottom line folks turns out 9/28/2018 was a great day for Dems in particular and Democracy-loving Americans in general. Our loud voices are beginning to get heard in spite of the GOP’s total stranglehold on political power(elevator women on Sen Flake). Let us hope the FBI investigation exposes Kavanaugh’s true character–a serial liar–and sinks his Supreme Court prospects. Let’s hope also that Congressional Dems finally get their hands on the elusive Trump’s tax returns using the Emoluments Clause lawsuit.

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Dems Must Pursue No-Tax-Returns-No-Ballot Strategy Against Trump

The recent approval by Rhode Island’s Senate of a measure that would require presidential candidates to release 5 year tax returns in order to be placed on the state’s ballot has received tremendous praise by grassroots Dems, spurring Twitter hashtag #NoTaxReturnsNoBallot, among many others.


As expected, grassroots Dems are now wondering why other “blue states” are not following Rhode Island’s lead compelling Trump to release his tax returns nefore being placed on the ballot

Turns out according to Ballotpedia, that as of June 2018, there are 8  Democrat-controlled states, namely; Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware(see map below)

This means 7 other Dem states could easily follow Rhode Island’s lead and lock Trump out of their 2020 ballots, effectively killing his chances of securing the GOP nomination in 2020

Yours Truly will definitely reach out to the Dem Governors of the said states urging them to follow Rhode Island’s lead. For therecord this would by no means be a walk in the park if TeamTrump challenged it in court

However it presents a win-win situation for Dems because it would force Trump and his GOP to essentially defend lack of government transparency. It would also force Trump to finally take concerns about his emoluments clause violations seriously

Bottomline these 7 blue states should join Rhode Island’s #NoTaxReturnsNoBallot campaign

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TrumpSwamp–NY AG Sues Trump Family Over Trump Foundation Corruption

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has slapped the Trump family with a $2.8 million lawsuit claiming among other things that the Trumps used the Trump Foundation, a non-profit organization, to conduct “unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign” and “repeated and willful self-dealing transactions” in violation of both state and federal law.

Interestingly the NY AG in addition to filing the lawsuit also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service(IRS) and Federal Election Commission(FEC) for “further investigation and legal action”

There is nothing in the NY AG’s lawsuit that is particularly shocking, or a “bombshell” as the mainstream media calls it because by now the public is very aware of the corrupt business dealings of the Trump family. To this day the public is still longing to see the elusive Trump tax returns, mostly because people are convinced there are a lot of corrupt business dealings hidden there.

There is however an interesting detail in the NY AG's lawsuit that caught Yours Truly's attention--a handwritten note by Donald Trump directing Trump Foundation staff to settle a legal dispute involving his Mar-a-lago Hotel--a clear cut violation of the law

Straightforward/clear cut violations of the law like these have traditionally provided the mainstream media with an easy opportunity to question politicians and inform the public. In the age of Trump however, even slam dunk media opportunities like these seem to go by the wayside, with the mainstream media either afraid or unwilling to confront Trump. Democrats however have no choice but to confront Trump not only on this clear cut violation of the law but also on the other troubling issues raised by the NY AG lawsuit.

Bottom line TrumpSwamp/Corruption by Trump Admin and Trump family is an issue Dems must push hard during this midterm 2018 campaign season. As you can see from the lawsuit, the state and federal violations are so numerous and flagrant that they are impossible to justify. As Yours Truly has repeatedly stated, there are a lot of Independents and even Republicans out there who are also fed up with TrumpSwamp/Corruption and are shopping for alternative candidates in Midterm 2018. Dems need to be those alternative candidates

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Dems Must Weaponize #TrumpSwamp

One of the biggest promises then candidate Donald Trump made leading up to the 2016 elections was that because he was an outsider, he was the only one capable of taking corruption out of Washington–we all remember the constant “Drain the Swamp” chants at Trump rallies. The reality however has turned out to be the complete opposite. We are only in the second year of the Trump Admin yet Americans are already very alarmed at the shocking levels of government corruption reported in the media. Some are even wondering whether at this level of plunder and pillage, the country can survive 4 years of Trump. Corruption in the Trump Admin has become so prevalent, it has spawned the popular Twitter hashtag #TrumpSwamp.



Americans were initially concerned about Trump's conflicts of interest and violations of the U.S. Constitution's Emoluments Clause because of the fact that despite promising to do so during the campaign, Trump never fully divested from his vast global business empire upon assuming the presidency.

Concerns about the president's violations of the Emoluments Clause persist to this day and are the subject of several lawsuits. The problem however is that in addition to conflict of interest questions surrounding the president himself, it appears members of his administration are also caught up in all kinds of corrupt schemes. Some of the notable corruption scandals involve EPA Administrator Scott Pruit, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, just to mention but a few.

Message for DNC? Corruption in the Trump Admin has to be a central theme in campaign ads for the various Dems running for office this November. Dems must not only call out these egregious levels of corruption in the Trump Admin but also propose solutions to prevent them from happening again in the future. Even though it is well known that the GOP has its "mandatory voters" on the right and Dems have theirs on the left, there is a huge swath of independent voters who are longing to see these alarming levels of government corruption dealt with. Dems need to win these independent anti-corruption voters.

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You may reach the author via email at author@grassrootsdempolitics.com or author@emolumentsclause.com