The State Department has granted at least seven foreign governments permission to indirectly pay Trump by renting luxury condominiums at Trump Tower in New York according to an exclusive report from Reuters.
The State Department cleared the transactions without seeking approval from Congress as required by law according to Reuters which discovered the leases by reviewing diplomatic notes from the department.
The records show that in the eight months following Trump's January 20, 2017 inauguration, foreign governments sent 13 notes to the State Department seeking permission to rent or renew leases in Trump World Tower. That is more solicitations from foreign governments for new or renewed leases in that building than in the previous two years combined.
The governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand and the European Union got the green light to rent a combined eight units in Trump World Tower and followed through with leases, according to other documents viewed by Reuters and people familiar with the leases.
A federal judge recently ruled that the emoluments lawsuit against Trump may proceed and, as far as I can tell, the existence of these leases was unknown to the plaintiffs. The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia are pursuing emoluments claims involving Trump's hotel at the old post office in D.C. where foreign governments have also spent money.
The State Department has apparently justified the approval of these leases by pointing out that foreign governments leased condominiums from Trump before he took office, but that's exactly the point of the emoluments lawsuit.
The lawsuit stems from the fact that Trump never divested and he's still being paid by foreign governments while in office. He's neck-deep in graft.