Washington, USA Seeking answers on the administration’s intention to accept a luxury plane from Qatar for Air Force One, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced Tuesday he is putting a stop on all Trump Justice Department candidates.
“In light of the deeply troubling news of a possible Qatari-funded Air Force One, and the reports that the Attorney General personally signed off on this clearly unethical deal, I am announcing a hold on all DOJ political nominees, until we get more answers,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Before he releases his hold on candidates, the minority leader listed questions and demands he says the Trump administration must answer.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader in the U.S. Capitol last week ( kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images)
“President Trump has informed the American people this is ‘a free jet.’ Does that indicate the Qataris are sending a ready-on-day-one plane with all the security procedures already in place? If so, who put those security devices in place, and how can we be sure they were correctly set? Schumer enquired. “If this is, as President Trump promised, a free jet, will the Qataris pay for those very sensitive installations, or will American taxpayers cover the cost?” With this strategy, Schumer cannot block these nominations; rather, he can delay down their review. Given that the great majority of Trump nominees have previously been held in this manner, it is not very evident if the judicial nominees would have already been detained for other reasons.
On Monday, a top DOJ official informed NBC News the Office of Legal Counsel produced a document stating the acceptance of the plane was legal. The memo, endorsed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, was not released by the DOJ.
In his comments Tuesday, Schumer urged Bondi to go before Congress to clarify the conclusion—that there is no conflict—and respond to several inquiries concerning the possible gift.
“The attorney general must testify before both the House and Senate to explain why gifting Donald Trump a private jet does not violate the emoluments clause — which requires congressional approval — or any other ethics laws,” Schumer said. “Until the attorney general explains her blatantly inept decision and we get complete and comprehensive answers to these and other questions, I will place a hold on all political nominees to the Department of Justice.”
Regarding the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Schumer further accused DOJ of not “doing its job,” stating that the unit supervising adherence to the law should enforce it and reveal information to the public “not just on this luxury plane deal, but all deals involving foreign countries in the Middle East and President Trump, his family and the Trump Organization.'”
Reached for comments Tuesday, a White House official said: “Senator Schumer and his anti-law-and-order party are prioritizing politics over critical DOJ appointments, so impeding President Trump’s Make Safe Again agenda.” Cryin’ Chuck has to quit Senate stonewalling, stop the shenanigans, and give American civil rights and safety top priority.
Reacting to Schumer, a DOJ spokesman stated, “The American people overwhelmingly elected President Trump to nominate highly qualified candidates at the Department of Justice who will Make America Safe Again, and the Senate should do its part by confirming these nominees.”
Trump justified his choice to accept the airplane gift, which he described as “a very nice gesture,” before Monday’s departure for his Middle Eastern tour. Eventually, he further mentioned, it would be decommissioned and donated to his presidential library.
“Now I could be a stupid person and say, ‘Oh no, we don’t want a free plane,’” he told reporters at the White House. “I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer.”
Although Boeing had already been working on a strategy to replace Air Force One, the project has been overrun and overpriced. The CEO of the company told CNBC in January that it was collaborating with Elon Musk to deliver them ahead of schedule.
Concurrently, some legal experts have wondered whether the emoluments provision would allow a gift from Qatar that would follow Trump out of office. Democrats and even some Trump supporters have proposed the jet might be seen as a conflict of interest.
Close friend of the president’s, Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told CNBC on Tuesday that “the plane poses significant espionage and surveillance issues.”
Given Bondi’s prior advocacy for Qatar’s government, some Democrats have also questioned her engagement in the issue.
“She was a paid agent of the Qatari government, a lobbyist before she became attorney general,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Tuesday. “We have questions that we’ve asked about how she cleared her ethics statement on her relationship with Qatar, and I think that this plane deal is really with that front and center.”
Legislators and veteran intelligence agents point out the enormous surveillance threats such a gift from a foreign government presents and the long history of gifts that turned out to be more than they first seemed. For instance, Soviet children given the U.S. ambassador in Moscow a wooden sculpture of America’s Great Seal in 1945 left a listening device inside the object discovered seven years later.
Charges that Trump illegally profite from foreign companies are not new. They surfaced during his first term, but the legal issue never was settled prior to his leaving office.
In such cases, claims under the emoluments clauses—anticorruption measures meant to stop the president from getting gifts or payments from foreign officials or from the states—were at issue.
Regarding the matter to direct subordinate courts on how the terms might be enforced or even who could suit, there is no Supreme Court precedence.
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