Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters on Wednesday that he is looking into the lease for President Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel.
“I did request from the [General Services Administration] the full unredacted contract,” Chaffetz told reporters, according to Politico. “It’ll be interesting to see what they produce and what their take on it is.”
Democratic lawmakers and ethics experts say that Trump has violated his lease for the hotel. Trump leases the building from the federal government, and his lease states that an elected official cannot be involved in or benefit from the hotel, creating a conflict of interest for the new president.
Chaffetz told reporters he asked for the unredacted lease in December and that he still has not received it, according to Politico.
He’s hoping there will be some Benghaz!!! emails in the contract.
And seriously? “It’ll be interesting to see what they produce and what their take on it is.” He’s basically accusing GSA of lying about the contract, which means he’s looking for a way to cover Drumpf’s yoooge ass.
I’m a lawyer. I don’t read it that way. I read i more as saying ‘They say that’s in the lease, but I want to get a copy to confirm before I do anything.’ Judges do that all the time.
Chaffetz is a doily. He’ll review that lease for 30 seconds and come to the foregone conclusion that “It’s all good, man!”
But while he’s sniffing around, perhaps he can wander over to the Constitution and check out Article I, Section 9, Clause 8. Since he’ll already be knee deep in that Constitution, he should go ahead and check out the 25th Amendment, Section 4 (but I’d be just fine with Section 1 of same)
I wonder if Republicans are looking for some leverage to use against Trump. I bet he is a lot more active as President than they expected.
the GSA lease specifically says no government employee may hold any part of the lease.