CREW requests Senate investigation into Trump Hotel ruling
CONTACT: Jordan Libowitz
202-408-5565 | [email protected]
Washington—President Trump is still in violation of his lease of the Old Post Office for the Trump International Hotel, despite the General Services Administration’s (GSA) ruling to the contrary, according to a request for investigation filed today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW).
Following a complaint filed by CREW on Inauguration Day, the GSA ruled that the president is not in violation of his lease. However, the lease’s conflict of interest provision prohibits any federal elected official from deriving benefits from the lease or admitting to any share or part of it.
“President Trump is certainly a federal elected official, and he unquestionably remains the majority owner of the lease,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “This is the very definition of a conflict of interest.”
CREW requests that the EPW Committee—which holds jurisdiction over the GSA’s leases—not just review the lease, but also review the GSA’s ruling. The ruling did not provide a sufficient legal or rational basis for why the president’s company, Trump Old Post Office LLC, is not violating its lease, and it failed to take appropriate legal action against the president’s hotel.
“Neither the facts nor the law support the GSA’s finding that President Trump is in compliance with the lease’s conflict of interest provision,” Bookbinder said. “The EPW Committee should immediately review and investigate the GSA’s unacceptable determination with respect to the lease.”