An unprecedented lawsuit aimed at Donald Trump alleges that the President's ties to the business empire that he built as a private citizen, violates anti-corruption clauses in the Constitution.
Attorneys general for the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland have charged in the lawsuit that Trump's businesses have accepted millions in payments and benefits from foreign governments since the President took the oath of office, raising conflict of interest concerns at a scale unseen before in American politics, reports the Independent.
The lawsuit also asserts that since Trump decided to maintain his financial interests in his global business empire, he is committing "unprecedented constitutional violations" by accepting those payments.
International financial interests have made the President "deeply enmeshed with a legion of foreign and domestic government actors" while undermining the integrity of the American political system.
"The president's conflicts of interest threaten our democracy. We cannot treat the president's ongoing violations of the Constitution, and his disregard of the rights of the American people as the new acceptable status quo," Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said during a press conference after filing the lawsuit.
"Fundamental to a President's fidelity [to faithfully execute his oath of office] is the Constitution's demand that the President. disentangle his private finances from those of domestic and foreign powers. Never before has a President acted with such disregard for this constitutional prescription," the lawsuit further states.