WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) The US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee plans to investigate whether US foreign policy decisions are influenced by the potential impact on the Trump business empire, Committee Chair Eliot Engel said in an interview on Wednesday.
"I'm concerned about - we want to make sure that policies are being made based on what's good for the United States and not what might be good for the president personally," Engel told CNN.
Engel said he suspects that President Donald Trump is violating the US Constitution, without elaborating.
Democratic lawmakers are plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit against Trump, which accuses the president of violating a provision in the US Constitution that requires congressional approval for the president to benefit from foreign "emoluments."
Democrats have also questioned whether Trump intervened to block a planned move of FBI headquarters to the suburbs from downtown Washington, DC to protect business at the Trump International Hotel adjacent to the present headquarters.
Earlier on Wednesday, House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Elijah Cummings announced a probe of security clearances in the White House going back to the transition following the 2016 election.
With the House of Representatives now controlled by Democrats, committee chairs have gained the power to launch investigations and issue subpoenas - a power held by Republicans during the Trump administration's first two years.
