Democrats Push to Cancel Trump’s D.C. Hotel Lease Before He Can Sell

Democrats are pushing to cancel the lease of President Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington D.C. in an effort to stop him from selling it at a profit.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is urging a federal agency to terminate the lease on Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel before he can sell it and make a profit of around $76 million.

The Democrat-led committee made the request to the General Services Administration (GSA) after Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars, dropped the Trump Organization as a client.

They wrote:

“We are concerned about several new developments related to former President Trump’s lease for the Old Post Office Building, which former President Trump and his company entered into in 2013 and held throughout his presidency.

“New information, including that former President Trump may have submitted inaccurate financial information to the federal government to obtain this lease and that he stands to reap millions in profit from selling the lease, reinforce the serious ethical and legal concerns previously raised by the Committee.

“First, the General Services Administration (GSA) recently informed the Committee that it has begun a 45-day review of the Trump Organization’s plans to sell the lease for the Old Post Office Building in Washington, D.C., to a Miami-based investor group for $375 million, which appears to represent a significant premium over market rates.

“If approved by GSA, the sale would yield a profit of approximately $100 million to the Trump Organization, of which approximately $76 million would flow to former President Trump based on his continuing ownership stake in the Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. (Trump Hotel).

Second, according to recent court filings, former President Trump’s longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP (Mazars), terminated its relationship with former President Trump and the Trump Organization following long-running scrutiny by the Committee and other investigators.

“Mazars served as the auditor for the Trump Hotel, but the accounting firm has stated that it has ‘reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization’ and that Mazars is ‘not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.’

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“Mazars advised that ten years’ worth of financial statements prepared for former President Trump—referred to as Statements of Financial Condition—’should no longer be relied upon’ and that the Trump Organization ‘should inform any recipients thereof who are currently relying upon one or more of those documents that those documents should not be relied upon.’

“As part of his bid to win the Old Post Office Building lease, former President Trump submitted three years’ worth of Statements of Financial Condition, all compiled by Mazars, to GSA.

“As the Committee previously explained, those statements appear to be ‘incomplete, misleading, and in violation of the express terms of the solicitation’ given significant omissions in former President Trump’s listed assets and liabilities.

“Although the financial statements that former President Trump submitted to GSA preceded the ten years of statements that Mazars has now retracted, the earlier statements submitted to GSA contain potential misrepresentations about former President Trump’s assets that are similar to those identified by state investigators.

“In light of these new revelations, including further evidence that the former President submitted at least one financial statement with possible material misrepresentations to GSA, we request that you consider terminating the Old Post Office Building lease to former President Trump and the Trump Organization under the authority provided in Article 27 of the lease, and end, once-and-for-all, the grave damage this inappropriate lease has done to presidential ethics and integrity in government contracting.

“Given the longstanding ethical questions and concerning new developments surrounding former President Trump’s lease of the Old Post Office Building, we call on GSA to consider terminating the lease by exercising its authority under Article 27 of the lease.

“No one should be rewarded for providing false or misleading information to the federal government or for seeking to profit off the presidency,” they wrote.

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By David Hawkins

David Hawkins is a writer who specializes in political commentary and world affairs. He's been writing professionally since 2014.

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