A federal official dismissed concerns that it would pose a conflict of interest for President Donald Trump to serve as both landlord and tenant of his real estate company’s Washington, D.C. hotel, which is housed in a government-owned building, before approving Trump’s ongoing control of the lease.
As Bloomberg reported Monday, Kevin Terry, the General Services Administration’s contracting officer, emailed a Trump Organization executive three days after the 2016 election to brush off a BuzzFeed article about the possible conflict of interest.
“FYI – A fair amount of nonsense,” Terry wrote, according to documents the publication obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Terry later wrote in a decision reached March 23 that Trump’s company was “in full compliance” with the lease and could keep it.
Terry, the GSA, the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to Bloomberg’s requests for comment.
Well before Trump took office, the Trump International Hotel became a rallying point for critics concerned that the President-elect was not taking appropriate steps to sever ties with his family business. They noted that the contract language explicitly says that no “elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom[.]”
The Republican National Committee, conservative groups and a number of foreign governments have held splashy events at the hotel—a significant source of revenue for the Trumps’ real estate empire. Last week, Trump himself held a $35,000-per-plate fundraiser there for his 2020 re-election, reportedly raising some $10 million for the campaign.
There are currently three lawsuits pending in federal court alleging that foreign governments’ spending at the hotel would violate the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In a May court filing, Trump’s lawyers said revoking ownership of the hotel “could result in enormous personal financial loss for the president.”
