Donodus and His Conflict of Interest, Explained.

I started adding this to a 5 Thoughts post, but then the entry became much longer than just a thought. Here is my larger composition -- a dozen pages and countless footnotes short of a complete exposition of the entire subject:

(jump break = you have to click on the post to read the rest of it)

Donodus stated that the "President can’t have a conflict of interest". His statement (advised by his lawyers) is based on 18 U.S. Code § 202, which, in 1989 under the (ironically named) Ethics Reform Act of 1989, excluded the Vice President, President, Members of Congress, and Federal Judges from conflict of interest laws outlined by 18 U.S. Code § 208. Others have referenced this exclusion to highlight that, in fact, Donodus is correct.

Sidenote: 
Originally, conflict of interest laws were created in 1962 as a reaction to, yes you guessed it, President Nixon -- repealing the application of conflict of interest laws to themselves is such a DC thing, amirite? -- and now we are presented by perhaps the second most corrupt President in the history of the United States. 

However, that's not the end of the issue, and the argument is short-sighted.

In the US Constitution, Article I § 9 states, "no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state." Some might point to Congress' exclusion of the President under the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 as proof of "the consent of the Congress" as a blanket exception, but they would be wrong.

Firstly, even if you accepted this exemption as it related to Article I § 9,  it would only apply to the portion of the US Code dealing with conflict of interest; the rest of the US Code would still apply, and this is something that has been lost in the discussion. Therefore, bribery -- 18 U.S. Code § 201 -- and extortion -- 18 U.S. Code § 872 still apply. In fact, these two appear to be far more apropos in the discussion of Donodus and are far more consequential than a conflict of interest.

Secondly -- and this is a very critical issue -- whether Congress can offer a blanket exemption to Article I § 9 of the US Constitution has never been tested at the Supreme Court. Think about it. Can Congress pass a law that would effectively nullify a portion of the US Constitution, rather than convene a Constitutional Convention to pass an Amendment? I doubt it. In fact, I would bet that even a stacked court in favor of conservatives would adhere to their Originalism (citing the intention of Article V to prevent such end-runs) and the Court would rule 9-0 against this section of the US Code which sought an end-run around the US Constitution.

Finally, some might argue that Donodus' current actions have no applicability to the US Code as he has not been sworn in yet. This would be incorrect.

Under §208 (conflict of interest) -- and assuming SCOTUS invalidates part of §201 exempting the President -- Donodus' actions would reflect that he "participates personally and substantially as a Government officer or employee".

Under §201 (bribery) Donodus would have already met the scope of a "person who has been nominated or appointed to be a public official."

Under §872 (extortion) Donodus actions have shown that he is "representing himself to be or assuming to act as such, under color or pretense of office or employment".

In other words, he is currently -- as in right now -- in jeopardy of violating federal law and the US Constitution. He's still got his civil rape trial to deal with, too, next month.

Most Corrupt President, Ever.