Peter Overby

Lawyers for Maryland and the District of Columbia argued in court Thursday that President Trump is violating the Constitution's Emoluments Clause. They left the preliminary hearing feeling confident.

Several lawsuits filed last year allege Donald Trump violated the Constitution's Emoluments Clause as he entangles the presidency with his businesses. One suit has been dismissed.

Attorney Jeffrey Lovitky took it upon himself last year to sue Trump. "It is intimidating," he says. Still, he's suing again, saying he has a duty to push for compliance with various ethics rules.

A federal judge in Manhattan has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that President Trump is violating the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause. The judge said the plaintiffs lack standing to sue.

Almost one year after President Trump took office, an international watchdog has found that Americans are much more cynical about corruption in the White House and government.

Big-money donors can already donate anonymously through social welfare groups. If Congress keeps a provision in the House tax bill, it would allow charitable organizations to play politics.

Ninety miles west of the White House, the National Park Service was selling Trump Wine at Shenandoah National Park — raising questions about Park Service rules and presidential influence.

"We have dysfunction in Congress; we have dysfunction, I think, in the presidency; and we have dysfunction in the lobbying community" — reform lobbyist Meredith McGehee

The Washington swamp is swampier than ever. Ethics issues plague Congress and the White House, and special counsel Robert Mueller's probe has reached into the lobbying world.

Today, attorneys for businesses saying they are being hurt by the Trump Hotel in D.C. told a federal judge why they should have standing to sue for enforcement of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause. The White House attorneys said the businesses have no standing to bring such a suit. The judge said he intends to rule in 30 to 60 days.

On Wednesday, a federal judge will hear arguments in a case that asks: Is President Trump taking the kind of benefits banned by the Constitution? Step 1 is deciding whether plaintiffs have standing.

An inspector general for the IRS has found the agency went after many progressive as well as conservative groups in 2013, casting a shadow on GOP efforts to punish the agency for a "witch hunt."

Increasingly, wealthy business people are funding think tanks. As one political scientist notes, they tend to "want to know exactly what they're getting for their dollars' worth."

Ethics watchdogs are preparing for their lawsuit alleging President Trump is violating the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause. But this renews the controversy over what defines an emolument?

President Trump and his White House seem to have settled into a routine of dismissing the ethics laws. So when he plugged his Charlottesville winery at a last week, the pitch hardly made headlines.

President Trump and some GOP lawmakers want an investigation into Hillary Clinton and other figures from the Obama era. But a probe of a defeated candidate is not the norm in American democracy.

Because of his many roles at the White House, President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner draws controversy. Previous presidents hired family members too, but those staffers had political experience.

Bedminster, the New Jersey town that President Trump often visits, has been designated an official presidential residence and will receive $41 million in federal funds to help cover security costs.

President Trump's re-election campaign paid Donald Trump Jr.'s lawyer $50,000. White House lawyers are paid government salaries, by taxpayers, but it's unknown how the private lawyers are being paid.

The Trump family has been hiring lawyers to defend themselves against various potential charges involving Russian contacts. But who is paying those legal fees?