“It’s so much in Donald Trump’s character to violate the entire regime governing gifts from foreign states,” Mr. Raskin said. He added that “Trump is exactly someone who the framers had in mind” when they included the emoluments clauses in the Constitution, which bars any federal office holder from accepting any type of gift from a foreign state without Congress’ consent to prevent American policy from being dictated by foreigners.
The report also raised issues involving a domestic gift. It cited an email exchange from Jan. 15, 2021, in which the Trump White House’s top ethics lawyer, Scott Gast, expressed concerns that a Mac Pro computer from Mr. Cook, which was valued at $5,999, had been intended as a gift to the U.S. government, not Mr. Trump. Gifts that are given to the government are considered government property and cannot be taken by officials.
In response, a Trump aide, Desiree Thompson Sayle, said, “Well, we can’t find it.”
A year later, in Mr. Trump’s financial disclosure forms, he listed the computer among the gifts he had received and kept. The episode in some ways echoed a dispute involving former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton after they left the White House in 2001. They were accused of taking a sofa, a rug and chairs from the White House that had been given to the government, not them. The Clintons ultimately returned the furnishings.
A spreadsheet compiled by White House aides in the final days of the Trump administration listed gifts that Mr. Trump needed to decide whether he wanted to keep. Among the items that he had already decided to accept and publicly disclose was a gold pendant necklace that he had received during a trip to Saudi Arabia in 2017.
The necklace, which was valued at $6,400, was “on moving truck to Mar-a-Lago,” according to the spreadsheet. There is no evidence Mr. Trump paid for the necklace. In response to questions from the committee, the National Archives said it believed it was in possession of the necklace but had not gone through its warehouse to find it.
Matthew Cullen contributed reporting.
