Tags
Emoluments Clause, Ethics, GAO, Gerry Connolly D-VA, gsa, Old Post Office, Transparency, Trump, Trump Hotel lease, US Congressman Cummings, US constitution
The Old Post Office Building leased to Trump for his hotel
“LOC Gov Architectural details at Old Post Office Building located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. 2012 January. Highsmith, Carol M., 1946- LC-DIG-highsm- 25088”
“GSA had an obligation to uphold and enforce the Constitution. However, GSA opted not to seek any guidance from OLC (Office of Legal Counsel) and did not address the constitutional issues related to the management of the lease.” (GSA-Office of Inspector General, January 16, 2019)
US House “Chairmen Seek Documents on Trump Hotel Lease with GSA
Apr 12, 2019 Press Release
Washington, D.C. (Apr. 12, 2019)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, sent a letter to the General Services Administration (GSA) requesting documents that have been withheld for years relating to the Trump Organization’s lease with the federal government for the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.
“Over the past two years, we have written to GSA with more than a dozen other Committee Members, requesting documents related to the lease and its management,” Cummings and Connolly wrote. “Under the Obama Administration, GSA produced many of these documents, but GSA abruptly changed course after Donald Trump was elected President and the agency began withholding these documents from Congress. … Now that we are the Chairmen of the Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Subcommittee on Government Operations, we request that you produce the following documents by April 26, 2019.”
In January, the Office of the Inspector General at GSA issued a report raising grave questions about the management of this lease. https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/files/ipa-reports/JE19-002%20OIG%20EVALUATION%20REPORT-GSA’s%20Management%20&%20Administration%20of%20OPO%20Building%20Lease_January%2016%202019_Redacted.pdf
The report concluded that GSA “recognized that the President’s business interest in the OPO lease raised issues under the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses that might cause a breach of the lease,” but GSA “attorneys decided to ignore the emoluments issues” in their assessment of the lease.
The report found “serious shortcomings” in GSA’s decision-making processes relating to the possible breach of the lease and recognized that “the constitutional issues surrounding the President’s business interests in the lease remain unresolved.”
Read today’s letter here. https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/2019-04-12.EEC%20and%20GEC%20to%20GSA%20re%20Trump%20Hotel.pdf
Issues:
Administration, Ethics and Transparency, Trump Hotel in Washington, DC
116th Congress” https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/chairmen-seek-documents-on-trump-hotel-lease-with-gsa
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