The Democratic Coalition — the political group that filed an ethics complaint against Donald Trump over the weekend — has filed a second complaint with the Department of Justice Tuesday, TheWrap has learned.
The group is asking the DOJ whether the president violated federal law when he called on NFL owners to fire players who kneel in protest during the national anthem.
“Since there are both ethical and criminal components to President Trump’s actions in this case, we have filed formal complaints with both OGE and DOJ,” Democratic Coalition chairman Jon Cooper told TheWrap. “Considering the serious nature of this matter, it is our expectation that the complaints will receive full and fair consideration by both agencies.”
The group cited a statute which makes it a crime punishable by a fine or up to 15 years in prison or both, for the president, as well as members of Congress and other federal officials, to influence or threaten to influence a private company’s hiring practices “solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation.”
“We respectfully request that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate these potential criminal violations and take all appropriate disciplinary actions against President Trump,” the coalition wrote in its complaint, addressed to Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Trump kicked up a media firestorm Friday when he suggested during a rally in Alabama that coaches should get the “son of a b—” players off the field if they continued to kneel. The comments triggered widespread protests from athletes, the league and coaches, many of whom condemned Trump’s comments.
The president continued his assault on the sports world over the weekend and into Tuesday with a series of tweets slamming NFL’s ratings and encouraging fans to boycott upcoming games.
The group added Trump’s tweets as well as a CNN report titled: “Trump: NFL owners should fire players who protest the national anthem” as evidence in their formal complaint.
The group filed a similar complaint with the Office of Government Ethics on Sunday. The OGE would not comment on specific cases. But according to Walter Shaub, who resigned as director of OGE this summer, “OGE has no enforcement authority on this or any other statute.”
“Because it’s a criminal statute, only the Department of Justice can go into court,” Shaub, who now serves as the senior director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, told TheWrap.
The law’s qualified language limits its applicability. According to Shaub, Trump would have to intentionally influence NFL’s hiring practices, “solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation”
“He hasn’t said ‘fire them because they are Democrats or Green Party members,’” Shaub said. “It’s not as clear cut as people may think.”
The Democratic Coalition believes the complaint has merit, telling TheWrap: “If DOJ, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, fails to act on our complaint, at least it could be added to the growing list of criminal charges that special counsel Robert Mueller can potentially file against the president.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Read the full complaint in the document below.
