Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is ordering the panel's staff to tell foreign governments to stop using President Donald Trump's hotels and businesses, NBC News is reporting.
His instructions came in a memo to staffers on Monday.
"When meeting with officials from a foreign government, please inform them that by providing any form of payment or benefit to a Trump-owned property their government is facilitating the president's apparent violation of the Foreign Emoluments Clause," Engel said in the memo.
"Please urge those foreign officials to transmit to their governments that the House Foreign Affairs Committee requests that they cease and desist payments to the Trump Organization unless and until Congress approves the emolument, as provided in the Constitution.
Engel had joined with about 200 lawmakers and filed suit against Trump in 2017, claiming the president is violating the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause by making money from foreign governments while in office.
NBC News noted Trump's lawyers say the president is not violating the clause because the properties are not related to his presidential duties. But the congressional lawsuit is still pending.
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