Trump is using the government shutdown to delay a lawsuit against him

The government shutdown has left President Trump with some unexpected benefits.

Trump is facing a number of ongoing lawsuits, including one that alleges he illegally profits when foreign officials stay at his Washington, D.C., hotel. But Justice Department lawyers representing Trump in the case aren't being paid during the shutdown, so they've sought to freeze its litigation while the shutdown continues, Politico reports.

The ongoing suit says Trump has violated the Constitution's emoluments clause "by maintaining a financial interest in his company’s Washington hotel," per The Washington Post. The clause prohibits government officials from accepting gifts from foreign officials, and the suit says profits from their stays at the hotel could constitute gifts.

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DOJ lawyers' next filing in the case isn't due until Jan. 22, but they've already asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to delay filings indefinitely. "The Department does not know when funding will be restored by Congress," the lawyers' request says, and they can't work "even on a voluntary basis" in the meantime. The court quickly granted the DOJ's request, Politico reports. Other requests to delay civil government lawsuits, including a suit involving Trump's asylum ban, were also filed Wednesday.

It's not clear when the case will proceed, seeing as the request appears to "extend [deadlines] by the duration of the shutdown once Congress and the president put new funding in place," Politico writes. It's also unclear if Trump will own up to the shutdown like he said he would just two weeks ago.