Trump lawyers try to halt evidence collection in emoluments case

President Trump’s personal lawyers are seeking to pause evidence collection in a case regarding the constitutionality of the revenue stemming from his Washington hotel, CNN reported Friday.

The attorneys general of D.C. and Maryland are working together in a lawsuit alleging that Trump has received illegal gifts through the Trump International Hotel amid claims that foreign dignitaries stay there to curry favor with the president.

The suit was moving to its discovery phase and the attorneys general had sent out several subpoenas, including to the Trump Organization, according to CNN.{mosads}

A federal judge had allowed the lawsuit against Trump’s businesses to move forward, but did not rule on whether to dismiss a lawsuit against the president personally.

The Justice Department is appealing that judge’s ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which gives Trump’s lawyers wiggle room to ask for a pause in the evidence collection, CNN noted.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) slammed the lawyers’ request.

“I think they may have violated Lewis Carroll’s copyright on ‘Alice in Wonderland,’’” he told CNN, adding that the argument that the president is immune from the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause is “absurd.”

Trump has denied that stays at the hotel influence his governance.