Schumer to put hold on Trump DOJ nominees over Qatari plane gift


Schumer to put hold on Trump DOJ nominees over Qatari plane gift: Report

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will place a hold on President Donald Trump’s remaining Justice Department nominations over his acceptance of a $400 million jet from Qatar.

Senate Democrats have argued that Trump’s acceptance of the luxury jet is a violation of the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which prevents any person holding office from accepting any present, emolument, office, or title from any “King, Prince, or foreign State,” without congressional consent. Schumer is expected to place the hold on the Senate floor Tuesday morning, Punchbowl News reported.

He will also call upon the Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Act unit to “disclose all activities by Qatari foreign agents inside the U.S. that could benefit” Trump or his business interests. Schumer will also request that Attorney General Pam Bondi testify to explain her approval of the gift, given that she served as a registered lobbyist for the Qatari government.

“Until the American people learn the truth about this deal, I will do my part to block the galling and truly breathtaking politicization at the Department of Justice,” Schumer plans to say, according to the report.

It will mark the first time Schumer has ever placed a hold on a set of nominees from a president. 

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also plans to introduce a resolution disapproving of the gift.

“There’s no context in which this makes sense. There’s no legal justification. There’s no moral justification,” Schatz said. “This is one of the most outrageous things that an American president has ever done.”

This comes as Trump embarked on his second state visit of this term, to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

TRUMP MIXES BUSINESS AND DIPLOMACY AS ETHICS CONCERNS HANG OVER MIDDLE EAST TRIP

Trump has defended his decision to accept the jet. The Trump administration plans to convert it into an Air Force One jet that will later be claimed by Trump’s future presidential library.

“I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,” he told reporters on Monday. “I could be a stupid person and say, ‘No, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.’”



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