ACTION: Ask NY Atty Gen to investigate and dissolve Trump Org. 800-771-7755

Now that Trump has fired US Atty Bharara, NY Atty General Eric Schneiderman has the special power and duty under NY Bus. Law 1101(a)(2) to investigate: 1) unconstitutional “Emoluments”; 2) Trump financial records; 3) Russian influence; 4) violations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Iranian sanctions; 5) obstruction of justice.

CALL NY AG Helpline: 1-800-771-7755. Tweet address: @AGSchneiderman.  See Jed Shugerman at Shugerblog.com.

Trump just fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara this afternoon, after Trump had decided to keep Bharara on the job in January. Bharara had been very popular with Republicans for his prosecution of corrupt politicians. So why the sudden change?  When Trump asked for Bharara’s resignation yesterday, the N.Y. Times explained:

Last week, several public interest groups, including Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, called on Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and an aggressive prosecutor of corruption, to investigate the Trump Organization, the New York-based business through which Mr. Trump owns and controls his hotels, golf courses and other holdings. But that effort might not go far because the Department of Justice on Friday asked Mr. Bharara and 45 other United States attorneys appointed by former President Barack Obama to resign.

When Bharara refused to resign, Trump fired him. Coincidence? What was Bharara already investigating? Now that Trump will replace Bharara with his own personal crony to protect his business empire, who else can investigate?

The answer is simple: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman can bring the investigation that Preet Bharara might have.  I have written before about how every state gives its attorney general the power — and the duty — to investigate corporate corruption and law-breaking with the Quo Warranto procedure. In New York, that power is written into New York law. New York’s Business Corporation Law section 1101 grants the attorney general the authority “to bring an action for the dissolution of a corporation” if:

the corporation has exceeded the authority conferred upon it by law, or has violated any provision of law whereby it has forfeited its charter, or carried on, conducted or transacted its business in a persistently fraudulent or illegal manner, or by the abuse of its powers contrary to the public policy of the state has become liable to be dissolved.

N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 1101(a)(2). New York courts have explained that violations of federal law are also grounds for dissolution, so Trump’s constant violations of the Emoluments Clause are grounds for this investigation and dissolution or forced divestment. In re People (Int’l Workers Order, Inc.), 199 Misc. 941, 976, 106 N.Y.S.2d 953 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1951).

Call, tweet, or write to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman now to get him to start this investigation to understand what Trump and his corporations are doing, how the corporation is a vehicle for foreign “emoluments,” and how these foreign entanglements are endangering the United States.  And if you live in other states, you can contact your attorney general, too.  I’ll update this blog with state-by-state action plans soon.

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s Twitter address: @AGSchneiderman

NY Attorney General’s General Helpline: 1-800-771-7755

TDD/TTY Toll Free Line: 1-800-788-9898

Mail: Office of the Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341

 

 

 

 

 

Author: Jed Shugerman

Jed Handelsman Shugerman is a Professor and Joseph Lipsitt Scholar at Boston University School of Law. He was at Fordham Law School 2013-2022. He received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. (History) from Yale. His book, The People’s Courts (Harvard 2012), traces the rise of judicial elections, judicial review, and the influence of money and parties in American courts. It is based on his dissertation that won the 2009 ASLH’s Cromwell Prize. He is co-author of amicus briefs on the history of presidential power, the Emoluments Clauses, the Appointments Clause, the First Amendment rights of elected judges, and the due process problems of elected judges in death penalty cases. He is currently working on two books on the history of executive power and prosecution in America. The first is tentatively titled “A Faithful President: The Founders v. the Unitary Executive,” questioning the textual and historical evidence for the theory of unchecked and unbalanced presidential power. This book draws on his articles “Vesting” (Stanford Law Review forthcoming 2022), “Removal of Context” (Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities 2022), a co-authored “Faithful Execution and Article II” (Harvard Law Review 2019 with Andrew Kent and Ethan Leib), “The Indecisions of 1789” (forthcoming Penn. Law Review), and “The Creation of the Department of Justice,” (Stanford Law Review 2014). The second book project is “The Rise of the Prosecutor Politicians: Race, War, and Mass Incarceration,” focusing on California Governor Earl Warren, his presidential running mate Thomas Dewey, the Kennedys, World War II and the Cold War, the war on crime, the growth of prosecutorial power, and its emergence as a stepping stone to electoral power for ambitious politicians in the mid-twentieth century.

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