Hey, it's Ilya with the Trump Inc. podcast Extra.

Trump Inc. is an open investigation from ProPublica and WNYC.

Our goal is to explore the business conflicts of interest at the heart of the Trump presidency.

No one would have thought when the Constitution was written that paying your hotel bill was

an emolument.

Instead, it would have been thought of as a value for a value exchange, not a gift, not

a title, and not an emolument.

On January 11, 2017, President elect Trump's attorney, Sherry Dillon, outlined a plan for

Trump to keep his business empire while serving as president.

She addressed the skeptics who said it would be impossible to know whether the new president

was serving the public interest or his own.

They suggest that the Constitution prohibits the businesses from even arms-length transactions

that the president elect has absolutely nothing to do with and isn't even aware of.

Today, we're going to go deep on hotels, rooms, valley parking, restaurants and meals at

properties owned by the Trump Organization, which is still owned by Donald Trump.

And while Dillon was specifically talking about the ways foreign governments might seek favors

by spending money at Trump properties, we're going to look at the ways U.S. states and cities

and agencies, and therefore U.S. taxpayers are in fact right now putting money in Trump's pockets.

Before Trump became president, Dillon said paying for a hotel room is a fair value exchange.

It's not a gift, and therefore...

It's not an emolument.

The Constitution does not require President elect Trump to do anything here.

...