Lawsuit accusing Trump of illegally profiting from hotel reinstated by federal appeals court

Filing previously thrown out by the fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals ​

A lawsuit accusing Donald Trump of illegally profiting from his presidency through his luxury Washington hotel has been reinstated.

A federal appeals court revived the lawsuit on Thursday, which alleges Mr Trump has violated the constitution by profiting from foreign and domestic officials who stayed as guests at the hotel.

“We recognise that the President is no ordinary petitioner, and we accord him great deference as the head of the Executive branch,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote for the majority in rejecting Trump’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

“But Congress and the Supreme Court have severely limited our ability to grant the extraordinary relief the President seeks”, she said.

The suit brought by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia is one of several that accuse Mr Trump of illegally profiting off the presidency through his business interests.

The filing claims that Mr Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the constitution, which states that the president will not accept payment, gifts or anything of value from foreign states or rulers with the intention of preventing undue influence to the president.

The suit has been dismissed and overturned a number of times since it was brought forward.

A US district judge originally refused to dismiss the lawsuit but was overturned by judges on the fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals who found that the filing lacked standing.

As a result, a rare writ mandamus was granted that directed the district judge to throw out the suit.

On Thursday this decision was overturned in a divided 9-6 ruling of all 15 court judges.

“The majority is using a wholly novel and nakedly political cause of action to pave the path for a litigative assault upon this and future Presidents and for an ascendant judicial supervisory role over Presidential action,” Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III wrote of the ruling.

Mr Trump’s company announced in October that it was considering the sale of the hotel after receiving years of complaints alleging he is profiting from the presidency.

Democratic members of Congress previously filed a lawsuit accusing the president of violating the same clause by accepting benefits to his businesses from foreign governments without congressional approval.

A federal appeals court in Washington dismissed the lawsuit on the basis that the 29 senators and 186 members of the House of Representatives did not constitute a large enough majority to bring forward the complaint.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.