Federal Government Has Been Telling Trump He Must Sell DC Hotel. Trump Has Ignored All Communications.

‘GSA Has Heard Nothing to Date’

According to the lease Donald Trump signed for the Old Post Office, now the site of his newest hotel, in Washington, D.C., “no … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or party of this Lease,” NBC News has reported.

Four top Democratic congressmen have been in official communication with the federal government’s General Services Administration, which oversees and manages $500 billion of U.S. government property, including the lease on Trump’s hotel.

The GSA, according to a letter the lawmakers sent, has made clear that the moment Donald Trump takes the oath of office, he will be in violation of the lease on the property, known as the Trump International Hotel.

Federal officials, as this excerpt from the lawmakers’ letter states, have made clear they have, many times, tried to contact Trump and the Trump transition team, yet have received no response:

The lawmakers, Congressmen Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), and Andre Carson (D-IN), also took special note of the conflict of interest the hotel poses, and the exceptional conflict of interest surrounding Ivanka Trump, the president-elect’s daughter who is expected to move to D.C. to work in his administration.

“The Trump International Hotel was used as the backdrop for a number of events during the presidential campaign,” Talking Points Memo notes. “Since Election Day, two foreign countries have planned events there and a number of foreign dignitaries have booked rooms in order to curry favor with the incoming president. The RNC reportedly plans to hold its Christmas party there, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence spoke at a Heritage Foundation event at the hotel.”

Ethics experts have said that these bookings already represent remarkable conflicts of interest. They argue that Trump’s stated intent to turn control of his company to his adult children would not fix the problem, either. 

“There’s no way that the president of the United States can have a lease with the GSA where the president appoints the head of the agency and that person serves at the president’s pleasure, and then employees of that organization are going to negotiate with that person’s children,” Steven Schooner, a former federal administrator in Bill Clinton’s administration, told TPM in a recent interview.

UPDATE: 2:17 PM EST –
CNBC reports the GSA is now saying they have not made a definitive decision about whether or not Trump must divest himself of the hotel, which appears to contradict the letter sent by Democratic lawmakers, and the law itself:

 

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