Tag: Trump hotel

Biden administration keeps long-sought Trump hotel documents under wraps

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The Trump administration blocked Democrats’ efforts to unearth documents related to his leased D.C. hotel. Not much has changed under Biden.

For Donald Trump’s entire presidency, top congressional Democrats used every tool at their disposal to investigate the Washington hotel he leased from the federal government, issuing subpoenas, holding hearings and filing a lawsuit to try to bring the inner workings of Trump’s luxury property to light.

The efforts were framed as a defense of democracy itself. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio(D-Ore.) said the Trump administration’s refusal to provide documents “was not just disconcerting but an affront to the democratic institutions that the United States has been founded upon.” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) saidthe lawsuit, filed in federal court, was “in pursuit of justice to make sure our committee can fulfill its duty to the American people.”

None of it worked — a testament to Trump’s willingness to fight at every turn. But now, with the Biden administration in place, Democrats’ efforts to unearth and make public the information haven’t gone much better. Continue reading.

As His Term Ends, Trump Faces More Questions on Payments to His Hotel

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A civil case being pursued by the attorney general for the District of Columbia has brought renewed attention to what limits there should be on a president’s ability to profit from the office.

WASHINGTON — It was a month before Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, and one of his aides had a delicate question: Wasn’t there going to be a backlash when it became known that the inauguration had spent donors’ money at Mr. Trump’s hotel in Washington, even though other places would cost much less or even be free?

“These are events in P.E.’s honor at his hotel, and one of them is with and for family and close friends,” Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, then an event planner for Mr. Trump, wrote in an email to a colleague in December 2016, referring to Mr. Trump as the president-elect and saying she raised the issue to “express my concern.”

As Mr. Trump’s presidency comes to a close, expenditures like those are receiving renewed legal scrutiny in the form of a civil case being pursued by the attorney general for the District of Columbia. Continue reading.

Trump (the Company) Asks Trump (the Administration) for Hotel Relief

New York Times logoThe president’s family business pays at least $3 million a year to the federal government for the lease on its D.C. hotel, which is all but empty because of the virus. The next monthly payment is coming due.

President Trump’s signature hotel in the nation’s capital wants a break on the terms of its lease. The landlord determining the fate of the request is Mr. Trump’s own administration.

Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House, had been a favored gathering place for lobbyists, foreign dignitaries and others hoping to score points with the president. But like most hotels, it is now nearly empty and looking to cut costs because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In recent weeks, the president’s family business has inquired about changing its lease payments, according to people familiar with the matter, which the federal government has reported amount to nearly $268,000 per month. Continue reading.

Kuwait Could Pay Up To $60,000 For Party At Trump Hotel In Washington

Kuwait could pay up to $60,000 for party at Trump Hotel in Washington

The Kuwaiti government could pay up to $60,000 to President Donald Trump‘s hotel in Washington for a party on Saturday that will be an early test of Trump‘s promise to turn over profits from such events to the U.S. Treasury.

The Kuwait Embassy is hosting an event to mark their National Day. Similar National Day celebrations at the Trump International Hotel for a crowd of several hundred can run from $40,000 to $60,000, according to cost estimates from the hotel seen by Reuters. The hotel declined to comment on the figures.

One of Trump‘s lawyers, Sheri Dillon, pledged at a Jan. 11 press conference to donate any Trump Hotel profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury.

Continue reading

Kentucky governor’s stay at Trump hotel could carry legal implications for president

Washington Post logoGov. Matt Bevin’s 2018 visit to Trump’s D.C. hotel likely to become fodder for plaintiffs in cases against Trump.

When Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin came to Washington in January for two nights — one of many visits the Republican had made to the nation’s capital — he stayed at President Trump’s D.C. hotel. Kentucky taxpayers initially footed the $686 bill, records obtained by The Washington Post show.

Although Kentucky’s Republican Party reimbursed the state for Bevin’s stay two months later, the transaction may still run afoul of an anti-corruption provision of the Constitution barring the president from receiving any “emoluments,” or payments, from the states, legal experts say.

In two cases wending their way through federal court, plaintiffs have alleged that Trump — by retaining his financial interest in his companies and doing business with state governments — has violated the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause. A central example cited by plaintiffs has been visits to the hotel by fervent Trump supporter and Republican Paul LePage, while he was governor of Maine.

View the complete November 21 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

Pence lands in controversy with stay at Trump hotel

The Hill logoVice President Pence’s office is engulfed in controversy set off by his two-night stay in Ireland at one of President Trump’s family properties.

Pence stayed at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg on Ireland’s west coast despite his meetings the same day in Dublin, which is on Ireland’s east side and 182 miles away.

The curious decision also came with a shifting story about why Pence ended up at Trump’s property in Doonbeg.

View the complete September 4 article by Brett Samuels and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Appeals court dismisses Emoluments Clause lawsuit in win for Trump

The Hill logoThe 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Maryland and the District of Columbia alleging that President Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, finding that they did not have the standing to sue the president.

The ruling is a major win for Trump, who has frequently sought to prevent others from reviewing his private financial records.
And it’s a sign that other lawsuits alleging similar violations of the Emoluments Clause — including one brought by more than 200 Democratic members of Congress — will face an uphill battle in succeeding.

View the complete July 10 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Trump’s July Fourth Event Builds Profits For His Washington Hotel

Trump will line his own pockets while he wrecks the previously nonpartisan Fourth of July celebration in Washington, D.C., according to a Friday report from HuffPost.

The Trump International Hotel is already sold out on July 3 and 4, and prices on July 5 are more than twice what the hotel normally charges, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

As HuffPost reported, Trump never cut financial ties with his business empire, so he profits every time someone stays at his hotels. Last year, he made $41 million from the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., while his daughter Ivanka, an unpaid White House senior adviser, made $4 million from her stake in the property.

View the complete June 21 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

A wealthy Iraqi sheikh who urges a hard-line U.S. approach to Iran spent 26 nights at Trump’s D.C. hotel

In July, a wealthy Iraqi sheikh named Nahro al-Kasnazan wrote letters to national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging them to forge closer ties with those seeking to overthrow the government of Iran.

Kasnazan wrote of his desire “to achieve our mutual interest to weaken the Iranian Mullahs regime and end its hegemony.”

Four months later, he checked into Trump International Hotel in Washington and spent 26 nights in a suite on the eighth floor — a visit estimated to have cost tens of thousands of dollars.

View the complete June 6 article by Joshua Partlow, David A. Fahrenthold and Taylor Luck on The Washington Post website here.

T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval. The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump’s hotel.

John Legere, chief executive of T-Mobile, arrives at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the impact of the T-Mobile and Sprint merger on June 27. Credit: Andrew Harrer, Bloomberg News

Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile’s value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.

But for T-Mobile, one hurdle remained: Its deal needed approval from the Trump administration.

The next day, in Washington, staffers at the Trump International Hotel were handed a list of incoming “VIP Arrivals.” That day’s list included nine of T-Mobile’s top executives — including its chief operating officer, chief technology officer, chief strategy officer and chief financial officer, and its outspoken celebrity chief executive, John Legere.

View the complete January 16 article by Jonathan O’Connell and David Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.