Trending

Supreme Court dismisses cases accusing Trump of illegally profiting from presidency

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ended the court battle over whether former President Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency while in office.

>> Read more trending news

Justices did not comment on the case, which on Monday were sent back to lower courts in New York and Richmond, Virginia, with orders to dismiss them as moot, according to The Associated Press. The high court also ordered lower court rulings thrown out, including one that had sent subpoenas to several federal agencies related to how money was spent at Trump-owned properties, CNN reported.

Trump had been accused of violating a constitutional anti-corruption clause that forbids him from accepting money from foreign governments. The Constitution’s foreign and domestic emoluments clause bars anyone “holding any office of profit or trust” from accepting “any present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign state.”

However, by Monday both sides of the debate agreed that the case had become moot, as Trump is no longer in office, according to Bloomberg News.

Restaurants, businesses and the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia previously filed suit against Trump, arguing that he showed preference to his own hotels and golf clubs. Among other things, they pointed to state-funded stays and events at Trump hotels by officials of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Georgia.

The former president previously criticized the Emoluments Clause, telling reporters that it was “phony.”