Thursday on CNN’s “The Source,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) argued the Constitution says a president can’t accept more money than his salary for the government while discussing President Donald Trump’s request that the Justice Department compensate him $230 million for past cases.
Host Kaitlan Collins said, “I do want to ask you, sir, because today you and the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into something President Trump has been seeking since before he returned to the Oval Office and that’s some $230 million from the Justice Department that he wants as compensation for the past federal investigations into him.”
Raskin said, “The whole thing violates the Constitution, which says that the president is limited to his official salary and cannot receive a dollar or more from the federal government. He just wants $230 million from his own underlings.”
He added, “The president can’t receive any more money beyond his salary. No president has ever attempted to do that before. He’s trying to turn the federal government into his own little ATM. It’s like a piggy bank for him, and he wants to take out $230 million. Maybe he wants to put it into the White House demolition and Marie Antoinette ballroom project but regardless of where he wants to put the money, it doesn’t make any difference. He can’t get anything beyond his official salary. Everybody can look it up. It’s Article II, Section I, Clause 7 of the Constitution. ”
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