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The amended
complaint filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in
Manhattan adds a restaurant trade group, whose members include
nationally known chefs Tom Colicchio and Alice Waters, and a
hotel events booker in Washington, D.C. as plaintiffs.
It is intended to address concern over whether the watchdog,
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, was itself
harmed by Trump and had standing to sue at all.
Trump is expected to respond by April 21, and had said the
original lawsuit filed on Jan. 23 had no merit.
Spokesmen for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately
respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The amended complaint said Trump violates the Constitution's
"emoluments" clause, which bars him from accepting various gifts
from foreign governments without congressional approval, by
maintaining ownership over his business empire despite ceding
day-to-day control to his sons, Eric and Donald Jr.
It said members of Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United
Inc, which represents more than 200 restaurants and nearly
25,000 workers, have improperly lost business, wages and tips to
Trump's competing businesses.
Jill Phaneuf, the other new plaintiff, works for a hospitality
company that books events in hotels near Washington's "Embassy
Row," which house foreign diplomats, and claimed that Trump is
costing her commissions.
The complaint said such plaintiffs are injured when foreign
governments try to "curry favor" with Trump by favoring his
businesses.
It said this has even occurred since Trump took office, when
China granted him trademark rights after he pledged to honor the
"One China" policy of his White House predecessors.
"When asked why defendant changed his position on the One China
policy, and whether he had gotten something in exchange from
China, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer answered: 'The
President always gets something,'" the complaint said.
(https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/27/press-briefing-press-secretary-sean-spicer-2272017-17)
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, an appointee of former
Democratic President Barack Obama, oversees the litigation.
The lawsuit seeks to "uphold one of the most basic aspects of
the rule of law: no one, including the president, is above the
law," Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California at
Irvine's law school and one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said in
a statement.
The case is Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
et al v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New
York, No. 17-00458.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Andrea
Ricci)
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