Chuck Schumer blocks Trump’s nominees on Qatar plane gift

Washington – Senate’s minority leader, Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) said Tuesday that he has put a “retention” in all nominated for President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice, in response to Trump’s plan to accept a luxury plane of $ 400 million as a Qatari government gift to use as an air force, the official presidential plane.

This plan is “so corrupt that even Putin would give a double shot,” Schumer said on the Senate’s floor. “This is not just a naked corruption, it is also a serious national security threat.”

“I am announcing a control over all the DAJ nominees until we obtain more answers,” he said.

The Democratic leader also sent a letter separately to the Attorney General Pam Bondi, noting that he personally signed Trump’s transaction with Qatar and asked for details about what was agreed in this agreement.

Schumer’s actions occur after Trump declared Sunday on the social networks that the Department of Defense is “receiving a gift, without a 747 plane to replace the 40 -year -Temprally Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction.”

He told reporters a day after “he would never” reject an offer of a free replacement for Air Force One of the Qatar government: “It could be a stupid person and say: ‘No, we don’t want a very expensive and very expensive plane.'”

But their plans raise all kinds of constitutional and ethical questions. To begin with, the The Unit of the Registration Law of External Agents of the Department of Justice must reveal All the activities of Qatari Alien Agents within the United States that could benefit Trump or his organizations, Schumer said.

The president’s plan also raises questions about what the Qatar government is offered in return, what security measures are integrated into this plane and why the United States would run the risk of trusting a foreign government to provide the president of the United States with an airplane.

Schumer’s “retention” over Trump’s nominees does not prevent it from confirming; Simply slows down the process to confirm them. The Democratic leader is denying the Republican Party “Unanimous Consent” to move them quickly.

Even so, the delay counts for something. Each nominated will now have to go through another layer of votes to advance, which is eaten in the time of the Senate floor. It is the first time that Schumer places a general winery in a complete set of presidential nominees, which is obtained in the degree of the alarming that Trump has made this agreement with Qatar.

Anadolu through Getty Images

During his comments in the Senate, Schumer said that Qatari and other nationals of the Gulf State have spent billions of dollars in agreements with Trump organizations, including $ 2 billion in Trump’s new stable, a type of cryptocurrency; The launch of a new Trump hotel in Dubai is worth more than one billion dollars; and a golf course in Qatar with a value of up to $ 5 billion.

“Donald Trump’s agreements in the Middle East rush of the self -enhance,” he said. “It is to endanger the national security of the United States aligning their own pockets.”

Republicans have been largely avoiding questions About Trump accepting a luxury Jet from Qatar. To date, only a Republican senator has openly expressed concerns about it.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky). He told News themezone On Monday, “it simply does not seem correct.”

The “retention” of Schumer will slow down the confirmations of people such as the attachments of Trump’s attorney general, John Eisenberg and Brett Shumate. It will also delay the action on Terry Cole, Trump’s choice to lead the drug control administration; In Gadyaces Serralta, Trump’s choice to lead the US Sheriff Service; and in Ariana Fajardo Orshan and Jason Reding Quiñones, both nominated for the position of US prosecutor for the southern district of Florida.

Carl Tobias, Professor of Law at the University of Richmond and an expert in the federal nominations process, said Trump has not yet nominated people to numerous spaces of the Attorney General or dozens of prosecutors in the United States. Anyone nominated for these publications would also face delays due to Schumer.

The president has been choosing not to nominate people to some of these positions and, on the other hand, has designated them for work in intermediate or current roles, which means that they can only serve for up to 120 days. Because? Because doing so “allows Trump to deprive the Senate of his confirmation role,” Tobias said.

On the other side of the Capitol building, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries (NY), also started the Trump gift plane from Qatar, describing it as “a shame” and, what is more important, a violation of the Constitution. Specifically, the foreign emoluments clause prohibits federal officials from accepting gifts of foreign states without signatories of the Congress.

The Constitution lets be “explicitly” of course that a president cannot do this without voting for Congress, he said during a press conference.

Jeffries marveled with the comparison of millions of Americans “living with a payment check”, while Trump is “publicly defending a ‘Flying Palace’ of $ 400 million of a nearby ally of Iran and Hamas.”

“I mean, you can’t invent these things,” he said.