The attorneys general for Maryland and the District of Columbia have issued dozens of subpoenas for records in a case that accuses President Trump of unconstitutionally profiting from his political position.
All subpoenas were issued by the offices of both Brian Frosh in Maryland and Karl Racine in D.C. Tuesday, roughly 24 hours after U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messittee approved the legal discovery schedule in a Monday order.
The Justice Department said Friday in court that it would challenge a decision to allow the case to go forward in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., but nothing had been filed as of mid-Tuesday. A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The subpoenas were served to more than nearly 40 companies and government agencies, including the Trump Organization, Trump International Hotels Management LLC, the state of Maine, the Treasury Department, the Department of Defense, and 18 entities that compete with the Trump Hotel, as well as to the Department of Commerce and DJT Holdings, LLC.
This is the first time a lawsuit alleging a president violated the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clauses has advanced to the discovery stage.
“We will now serve subpoenas to third-party organizations and federal agencies to gather the necessary evidence to prove that President Trump is violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses — our nation’s original anti-corruption laws,” Racine said in a statement on Monday.
First filed in June 2017, the lawsuit accuses Trump of violating two of the emoluments clauses, which restrict the president from receiving financial benefits from domestic and foreign governments as a result of the position he holds.
According to the lawsuit, Trump violates the clauses whenever those domestic and foreign governments spend money at the president’s D.C. hotel.
The Trump International Hotel is the Old Post Office building, which is leased from the federal government. The lease with the General Services Administration explicitly says that no elected U.S. official may hold that lease.
The Trump Organization has previously said it is donating profits from hotel business with foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury profits, but it hasn’t explained how it is calculating the amounts.
