President Donald Trump's planned acceptance of a $400 million luxury jumbo jet from the government of Qatar in the run-up to Middle East peace talks is so blatantly corrupt that even members of Trump's own party are condemning it, former White House ethics special counsel Norm Eisen told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday evening.
"I want to play you more of what White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox this morning about the plan," said Cooper, playing the clip.
"The legal details of that are still being worked out," Leavitt said in the clip. "But of course, any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we will continue to do that."
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"I mean, Norm, is any of this legal?" asked Cooper.
"Well, Anderson, as courts have found more than 125 times, this administration is trampling the Constitution and laws of the United States, and this is one of the lows," said Eisen.
Trump officials have asserted the gift is to the government, and subsequently to the Trump presidential library, rather than to Trump personally. However, Eisen noted, it's obvious this is a gift to Trump.
"Just listen to him. You played the sound earlier. I, I, I, why shouldn't I take the thing? It's going to follow him when he leaves the government. And he asked for a new plane. He toured this plane on the tarmac in Palm Beach."
"Everybody tours that plane on the tarmac!" Cooper chimed in sarcastically. "It was — it was widely available to everybody."
"Everybody gets a $400 million plane from the government of Qatar," Eisen agreed. "They give them out like the M&Ms [we] used to enjoy in the White House mess! I mean, it's so obviously a violation of the Emoluments Clause. I litigated these issues in multiple courts that found Trump had implicated emoluments rules the first time around. It's unconstitutional, and even his own party is calling him out on it. It's wrong."
Watch the video below or at the link here.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
