The Biden administration has delivered documents relating to the Trump Organization’s D.C. hotel to Congressional investigators. The D.C. hotel has been under scrutiny because of issues including the opportunity while Trump was in office for patrons to directly financially support the thenn-president of the United States by staying at the property. Throughout his entire presidency, Trump remained financially tied to his businesses, so that opportunity to patronize the then-president’s businesses presented clear conflict of interest concerns. Trump could have acted to prioritize those who’d financially supported him.
The Trump hotel-tied records came from the General Services Administration (GSA) after House Transportation Committee chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) re-requested them in March of this year following earlier stonewalling from the Trump administration. As summarized by CNN, the GSA “responded in a letter to DeFazio last week that it was turning over some of the requested records, including monthly financial statements from the Trump hotel, audits and lease amendments.” The GSA did not provide Trump hotel-tied legal memos, insisting that those constituted “internal executive branch legal advice.”
The agency told DeFazio that they were “still working to fulfill DeFazio’s request for memos and communications from the White House or other federal agencies” relating to the Trump hotel’s lease, as summarized by CNN. Another issue is the fact that, while in office, Trump was at the helm of the federal government — which was responsible for the lease to his own company for the usage of the building where his D.C. hotel has operated. The hotel is in a government building, the Old Post Office building to be exact, and with Trump in office, the handling of the lease could have been unfairly shifted in his favor due to political pressure.
Meanwhile, CNN notes that House Democrats are still trying to obtain Trump’s tax returns from the IRS. The documents could provide information that would be critical to legislative attempts to stop potential future corruption along the lines of what defined the Trump administration. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance obtained the records as part of his ongoing criminal investigation of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization.
