On Monday, DC attorney general Karl Racine and Maryland attorney general Brian Frosh are expected to announce that they'll be filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, the Washington Post reports."We're getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be," Racine said Monday.In the suit, the Democrat attorneys general allege Trump has failed to keep his business interests from influencing his role as president. It claims that by hosting foreign entities at his hotels and restaurants, Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits a sitting president from taking money from other governments without Congressional approval. Plus, it contends he's put his competitors in DC and Maryland at a real disadvantage."Never before has a President acted with such disregard for this constitutional prescription," the lawsuit claims, according to TIME.Rather than divest himself completely of all his private business assets upon entering office, Trump decided in January he'd hand the reigns to Eric and Donald Trump, Jr. in an independent trust. Not only does that trust allow for Trump to withdraw money from his businesses at any time without telling the public, but Eric Trump has also admitted that he plans to keep his dad updated on the financial dealings of all 400 entities in the family business.The move has already drawn another lawsuit from the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which was filed in January, according to the Post. On Friday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to drop that case with a 70-page brief that argues that the Constitution does not prevent a president from owning businesses.Prior to Racine and Frosh's announcement Monday, various Democrats in both the House and the Senate vowed to file yet another suit claiming Trump's businesses have violated the Emoluments Clause, according to Politico."This president has huge business interests and hasn't divested himself," New York representative Jerry Nadler said. "And the result is if you go to a Trump hotel, you're putting money into Trump's personal pocket. And there's nothing wrong with that, except if you're a foreign government."Watch the livestream of the announcement via PBS NewsHour above at 12 PM.
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