Happy Holidays, Mr. President!
If you’re related to the Attorney General of the United States, this winter you may find yourself on the exclusive guest list to attend a family Christmas party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Bill Barr has signed a contract with the President’s 260-room hotel for a 200-person, four-hour open bar party in the 13,200 square foot Presidential Ballroom, expected to cost $30,000.
“Barr is paying for the event himself and chose the venue only after other hotels, including the Willard and the Mayflower were booked, according to a Department of Justice official,” The Washington Post reports. “The official said the purpose of Barr’s party wasn’t to curry favor with the president.”
Some disagree.
“Experts say [a] private, 200-person party adds to questions about attorney general’s independence” from President Trump, the Post observes, calling it “the latest collision between Trump’s administration and his business, which the president no longer operates but from which he still benefits financially.”
Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy at the non-profit Project on Government Oversight told the Post: “It creates the appearance that high-level political appointees or allies of the president may feel like they need to spend money at the president’s businesses as a show of loyalty, and that is something that makes me deeply uncomfortable and should make taxpayers deeply uncomfortable.”
University of Alabama Law Professor and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance weighed in:
Conservative political scientist Norman Ornstein used somewhat different language to share his thoughts:
Just yesterday President Trump repeatedly pushed his Miami golf resort as the site of the 2020 G7, literally forcing other heads of state to fill his coffers with hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.