WASHINGTON, DC – The Constitutional Accountability Center and Gelber Schachter & Greenberg jointly filed a lawsuit today to hold President Trump, Governor DeSantis, and others accountable for violating the U.S. Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause, which provides that the President shall “receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.”

As the complaint filed today explains, the State of Florida’s gift of a piece of state-owned property worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Defendant Donald J. Trump through his corporation, The Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation, Inc., violates this critical protection against corruption and grift that the nation’s Founders enshrined in our fundamental charter.

“The Framers of our Constitution wrote the Domestic Emoluments Clause to ensure that the President would work to serve the collective interests of our nation rather than bending to the whims of any particular state,’” said Constitutional Accountability Center Senior Appellate Counsel Miriam Becker-Cohen. “President Trump and the state of Florida have flouted this prohibition. The state gave, and President Trump accepted, a piece of state-owned land in Miami worth over $300 million dollars for development of a presidential library. It has been clear from the start—and has only become clearer in recent months—that President Trump intends to monetize this land for immense personal financial gain. We filed suit today to put a stop to this violation of one of our Constitution’s most critical safeguards against corruption.”

“The term ‘Emoluments’ might sound arcane to modern ears, but the drafters of the Constitution were deeply concerned with the corrupting effect emoluments from states could have on the president. Today that threat remains as dire as ever,” Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra added.  “Our nation’s Founders wrote this clause of the Constitution to ensure that the President would act for the American people, not to line his own pockets. We file this lawsuit today to hold President Trump and his allies accountable to the law.”

Gerald Greenberg, a partner with the Miami law firm Gelber Schachter Greenberg, commented: “The state’s unconstitutional gift enriches President Trump at the expense of our community. It is an unlawful slap in the face to both Miami Dade College and an emerging downtown neighborhood.”

Dan Gelber, also a partner in the firm, added, “In their rush to ingratiate themselves to President Trump, Florida officials were complicit in trampling on the U.S. Constitution. Simply put, President Trump should not be able to extract from Florida an obscene private profit from his public trust.”

The case is Sistrunk Seeds Inc. D/B/A Dunn’s Overtown Farm v. Trump. The team at the Constitutional Accountability Center includes Elizabeth Wydra, Brianne Gorod, Brian Frazelle, Miriam Becker-Cohen, and Smita Ghosh, and the team at Gelber Schachter & Greenberg includes Dan Gelber, Gerald Greenberg, and Shane Grannum.

Read the complaint here.

##

Constitutional Accountability Center is a nonpartisan think tank and public interest law firm dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text, history, and values. Visit CAC’s website at www.theusconstitution.org.

##

Gelber Schachter & Greenberg, P.A. is a Miami boutique law firm that handles complex matters in federal and state court. In addition to representing private clients, the firm’s practice includes a wide range of public interest cases. For more, visit www.gsgpa.com.