Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) butted heads in 2019 over whether to investigate former President Trump for planning to host foreign leaders at his Miami resort, with the House leader rebuffing the Maryland congressman’s push to launch yet another probe into the president.
The revelations are included in “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump,” an upcoming book from Politico reporter Rachael Bade and Washington Post reporter Karoun Demirjian.
Since Congress won back the House in 2018, Raskin had pushed to take action on the issue of Trump allegedly violating the emoluments clause in the Constitution, which prohibits federal office holders from receiving gifts or compensation from foreign leaders.
Pelosi did not want to move on the issue at the time, and vulnerable Democrats in pro-Trump districts also did not want to launch another investigation into the then-president.
According to Politico’s Playbook, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) had asked Raskin during a discussion in 2019: “What’s the point?” “We know the end of this story.”
“Sometimes, we have to do these things,” Raskin had responded.
A few weeks later, in October 2019, Raskin again raised these concerns to Pelosi during an impeachment strategy session related to Trump’s threat to withhold aid to Ukraine in order to dig up dirt on a then-potential Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Trump at the time was planning to host the annual Group of Seven (G-7) conference of foreign leaders at Trump Doral, his private resort in Miami, which meant foreign officials would be spending money at Trump’s businesses and the president himself would spend taxpayer dollars there.
Then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had openly announced the G-7 conference at Trump Doral.
Pelosi told Raskin at the October meeting to prepare a resolution, calling Mulvaney a “liar and a creep” and Trump a “sick man and a freeloader,” according to Politico.
But when Trump ultimately reversed his decision to host the G-7 conference at Trump Doral, Pelosi eased up.
Still, Raskin refused to give up, repeatedly pushing for the emoluments probe.
Pelosi warned him to step down, threatening to withhold an impeachment manager position he wanted in the upcoming Senate trial for the Ukraine impeachment.
House Democrats never impeached Trump for any emoluments violations, but they did impeach him for the Ukraine debacle and the rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Senate acquitted him both times.