--- title: Trump Lawsuit: What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit description: The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is behind the suit canonical: https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-23T15:33:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:52:38.318Z article:section: Politics og:title: What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump og:description: It was filed by a liberal watchdog group. og:url: https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb295d75451cbcaa3/6988b6bc0b72e396f36ec5d0/gettyimages-632423246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: President Trump Attends The White House Senior Staff Swearing In og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump twitter:description: It was filed by a liberal watchdog group. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb295d75451cbcaa3/6988b6bc0b72e396f36ec5d0/gettyimages-632423246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 23, 2017 3:33 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump pauses while speaking during a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 23, 2017 3:33 PM UTC On Monday, a group of ethics lawyers is expected to[ file a lawsuit](http://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-sues-trump-emoluments/) against [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/tag/donald-trump/) that claims his business dealings violate the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause. The [Emoluments Clause](http://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/articles/1/essays/68/emoluments-clause) states, “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.” [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington](http://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/crew-sues-trump-emoluments/), a liberal watchdog group, announced the suit will be filed in New York’s Southern District first thing on Monday morning. The lawyers involved include former White House special counsel Norman Eisen; former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter; University of California, Irvine law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky; American Constitution Society cofounder Laurence H. Tribe; emoluments expert Zephyr Teachout; and appellate lawyer Deepak Gupta. According to a release from CREW, the lawsuit will allege that because Trump “refused to divest from his businesses” payments he receives from foreigners visiting his hotels, making lease payments, or conducting real estate deals constitute as cash and favors from foreign governments. “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,” the release reads. According to the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/trump-foreign-payments-constitution-lawsuit.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0), the suit will ask a federal judge to order Trump to stop accepting money from foreign governments. Eric Trump, an executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the [Trump Organization](http://www.trump.com/the-next-generation/eric-trump/), dismissed the action as political and told the _Times_ on Sunday the organization had already agreed to donate money from foreign government guests at their hotels to the U.S. Treasury Department. “This is purely harassment for political gain, and, frankly, I find it very, very sad,” the young Trump said. A University of Iowa law professor interviewed by the [_Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/trump-foreign-payments-constitution-lawsuit.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&%5Fr=0) argues payments made to the hotel do not violate the Emoluments Clause because the money goes to the business and not the president himself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/"},"headline":"What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump","datePublished":"2017-01-23T15:33:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:52:38.318Z","description":"The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is behind the suit","url":"https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House","Constitution","Ethics","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb295d75451cbcaa3/6988b6bc0b72e396f36ec5d0/gettyimages-632423246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb295d75451cbcaa3/6988b6bc0b72e396f36ec5d0/gettyimages-632423246.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Attends The White House Senior Staff Swearing In","caption":"President Trump Attends The White House Senior Staff Swearing In","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/","name":"What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump"}}]}] ```