The House report saw poor federal oversight of Trump’s DC hotel

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NEW YORK-The federal agency that oversees the rental of a luxury hotel run by Donald Trump’s family company in the nation’s capital has failed to fulfill its core responsibilities because it failed to track millions of dollars from foreigners government patrons the hotel or examined the source of a $ 75 million loan that helped keep its doors open, according to a congressional report on Thursday.

The General Service Administration has “washed its hands of responsibility” to examine how much the Trump International Hotel earned during his presidency from foreign government payments in possible violation of the Constitution’s emoluments clause, according to the Constitution’s report. Democratic-led House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. That provision prevents presidents from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments.

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The committee said the GSA “ignored critical ethical and constitutional issues involving President Trump’s then financial interest in the hotel.”

Neither the agency nor the Trump Organization responded to requests for comment.

In 2019, the agency’s internal watchdog criticized the GSA for failing to manage important property.

The committee, headed by Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, that the GSA does not monitor state hotel spending and local public officials may violate a separate constitutional provision prohibiting local government payments.

The report also blamed the agency for failing to investigate the source of the $ 75 million hotel loan, a possible source of conflict between Trump’s private financial interests and his public office as president. The debt, according to the report, came from the Trump family.

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A separate House Oversight and Reform Committee report in October said Trump had misled the public into hotel finances. The committee released financial statements showing that the hotel lost more than $ 70 million while he was president.

Ethics lawyers who criticized Trump’s decision not to remove himself from the hotel in Washington and other financial interests before becoming president in January 2017 have repeatedly blamed the GSA for not canceling the hotel lease of the family despite the language in the contract that prohibits government officials from profiting from property. The hotel occupies the government-owned Old Post Office building. A federal lease to the Trump family has been running for nearly 100 years, with extensions.

The GSA said its analysis showed that Trump was “in full compliance” with the lease because revenues from the hotel did not go directly to Trump while he was president. Trump placed his assets in a trust controlled by his two adult children and a longtime executive before his term began.

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Separately, GSA confirmed this week that the Trump Organization has given formal notice that it has reached an agreement to sell the hotel lease for $ 375 million to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami -based real estate investment firm. GSA must sign off on any purchase.

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