Washington – Senate’s minority leader, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said he is controlling all the nominees of the Trump Department of Justice, since he looks for answers about the administration plan to accept a luxury plane from Qatar to be used as Air Force One.
“In the light of the deeply worrisome news of a possible air force funded in Qatar, and the reports that the Attorney General personally signed in this clearly little ethical agreement, I am announcing control over all the political nominees of the Department of Justice, until we obtain more answers,” Schumer said in the Senate this morning.
The minority leader presented a list of questions that he has for the Trump administration that says he must be answered before lifting his control over the nominees.
“President Trump told the American people that this is ‘a free jet’. Does that mean that the Qataris are delivering a plane ready for the day with all the safety measures already incorporated? If so, who installed these security measures and how do we know that they were installed correctly? “Schumer asked.” If this is, as President Trump promised, a free plane, the Qatar will pay for those highly sensitive facilities, or the US taxpayers will cover the cost? “
Schumer cannot block these nominees with this tactic, but can slow their consideration. It is not really clear if the judicial nominees would have already been held for several other reasons, considering that the vast majority of Trump nominees have already been held in this way.
The Doj Legal Advisor Office prepared a memorandum declaring that the acceptance of the plane was legal, said a senior official of the Department of Justice to NBC News on Monday. The Department of Justice refused to release the memorandum, which Attorney General Pam Bondi approved.
Schumer, in his comments on Tuesday, asked Bondi to testify to Congress to explain the conclusion that there is no conflict and answer a series of questions related to the gift.
“The attorney general must testify to the Chamber and the Senate to explain why give Donald Trump a private plane does not violate the emolument clause, which requires the approval of the congress, or any other ethics law,” said Schumer. “Until the Attorney General explains his blatantly inept decision and we get complete and comprehensive answers to these and other questions, I will control all the political nominees to the Department of Justice.”
Before leaving for his trip to the Middle East on Monday, Trump defended his decision to accept the gift of the plane, which called “a very pleasant gesture.” He also said that he would eventually be dismantled and that he would be given to his presidential library.
“Now it could be a stupid person and say: ‘Oh no, we don’t want a free plane,” he told the White House journalists. “It would never be one to reject that type of offer.”
However, some legal experts have questioned how a gift that would follow Trump outside the position could be allowed by virtue of the emolument clause. Democrats and even some Republicans have suggested that the plane could be perceived as a conflict of interest.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, a nearby ally of the president, told CNBC on Tuesday that “the plane raises important spying and surveillance problems.”
Some Democrats have also questioned Bondi’s participation in the matter, since he previously pressed for the Qatar government.
Legislators and former intelligence officials point out the massive espionage risks that raise such a gift from a foreign government and the long history of gifts that turned out to be more than they seemed. In 1945, for example, Soviet children gave the United States ambassador to Moscow a wooden size of the large seal of the United States, and a listening device was discovered within the object seven years later.
Ken Dienian and Sahil Kapur contributed.
