Zephyr Teachout (previously) isn’t just an expert on antitrust law and corruption, and isn’t merely a netroots pioneer who has been on the right side of every technology policy fight since the Gore years — she’s also running to be the Attorney General of the State of New York, from which position she plans on gutting Trump on his corrupt business practices, targeting him using the dread emoluments clause.
I have endorsed and financially supported every one of Teachouts campaigns, including this one.
This one is extra special, though: Teachout just welcomed 120 of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s most skilled and dedicated volunteers into her campaign.
From the moment that Mr. Trump became president, Ms. Teachout has been talking about the possibility — in her mind, the absolute certainty — that his financial involvements with foreign state-controlled companies are in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits public servants from accepting anything of significant value from a foreign power without the clear consent of Congress. Seventy-two hours after Mr. Trump became president, she and other lawyers filed a federal lawsuit against him on these grounds.Before Mr. Schneiderman’s fall, Ms. Teachout had twice pushed him to go after the president on emoluments, she told me in her campaign headquarters in East Harlem one afternoon. He didn’t do it. Of all the candidates running for attorney general in the Democratic field — they include New York City public advocate Letitia James, who has the governor’s endorsement and the backing of the state party apparatus; Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney; and Leecia Eve, an upstate lawyer and former adviser to Hillary Clinton — Ms. Teachout is running the loudest, most aggressive campaign. She also has 120 active volunteers absorbed from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s blockbuster primary campaign.
Zephyr Teachout Is Running for Attorney General. But Her Real Target Is Trump. [Ginia Bellafante/NY Times]
(via Naked Capitalism)