Federal Agency Warns Trump He Must Give Up DC Hotel Before Inauguration

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo

By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published DECEMBER 14, 2016, 10:10 AM EDT

The President-elect has been warned by federal authorities that he will be in breach of a government lease if he does not revoke ownership of his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. before Inauguration Day, Democratic lawmakers revealed Tuesday.

The contract between the Trump Organization and the General Services Administration, which owns the federal building in which the luxury hotel is housed, explicitly states that no elected U.S. official may have a say in or benefit from the lease for that property.

As lawmakers noted in a letter to the GSA administrator first flagged by Buzzfeed News, Trump and his team have been informed that he will violate the terms of the lease as soon as he is sworn into office.

“The Deputy GSA Commissioner made clear that Mr. Trump must divest himself not only of managerial control, but of all ownership interest as well,” Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), and Andre Carson (D-IN) wrote in the letter.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gsa-democratic-lawmakers-warn-trump-must-give-up-dc-hotel

[underpants]

1. Geoff Zakarian may have the last laugh

[SHRED]

2. Yeah...that'll happen

Right after he gets divested of every other corrupt asset he owns worldwide.

[heaven05]

3. he'll just

give it to one of his kids. This boy does know how to skirt the law and regulations. He has been doing this type thing for many years now. Tempest in a teapot......

[mopinko]

6. pretty sure the fine print prohibits the kids.

fed laws on this sort of thing usually include family members.

[heaven05]

13. We will see

won't we?

[mopinko]

14. sadly.

[Jacob Boehme]

4. Can't wait to see....

.... how he tries to wiggle and weasel out of this.

Crikey! Any lawyer on either side of the bar in a case associated with this Trump administration debacle is going to have one hell of a payday. Just watch, defense and prosecution teams will be turned loose like pigs hunting for truffles when it comes to a Trump misstep; and the billable hours will come out like confetti.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. "The transition is not concerned about the appearance of a conflict.

says Hope Hicks, trump's new Director of Strategic Communications.

https://twitter.com/EveryVoice

He is a con man, who has realized that if you brazenly lie enough times, you can often get away before the hammer falls, esp. if enough people enable you.

[Sunlei]

5. put the property back up on GSA website and lease it to someone else! post offices go for about 200k

lighthouses about 10k. It's government property, like everything else sold or "historic building' leased on that website

[jack69]

8. Most likely you are right,

this has been all that has happened since the whole process began

[Cosmocat]

11. YEP

nm

[True_Blue]

15. Yep.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. From The Wall Street Journal.:

Agency Has Ruled Trump Will Be in Violation of Washington Hotel Lease, Democrats Say

By Byron Tau

[e-mail]
@ByronTau

Dec 14, 2016 9:14 am ET

The agency that manages federal government real estate has determined that President-elect Donald Trump will be in violation of the lease on the Washington, D.C., hotel bearing his name the moment he is sworn into office on Jan. 20, four senior House Democrats said in a letter Wednesday.

The Democrats said a senior official with the General Services Administration had informed members of Congress that the agency had determined Mr. Trump “will be in breach of the lease agreement the moment he takes office” on Inauguration Day “unless he fully divests” his interests in the property, the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

At issue is the provision in the lease stating 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 provision is a standard clause in government contracts designed to ensure that federal officials don’t personally benefit from taxpayer-funded projects and to avoid the appearance of favoritism or preferential treatment of government employees.

The federal government owns the building, which was called the Old Post Office or the Post Office Pavilion, before Mr. Trump redeveloped it into a hotel that opened at the height of the presidential campaign. The property is managed by GSA, which handles real estate, logistics, transportation and other support functions for many agencies within the U.S. government.

[Generator]

10. He won't do it

And then what will they do? NOTHING. Or maybe he'll just lie that he will then push the can down the road for four years. He will give up nothing. He is a fascist. This is what they do.

[fob]

12. SIMPLE: Give up trumpco or give up presidency

f/t

[wordpix]

16. I agree, he has to decide. And he's not the legitimate pres, anyway

[lindysalsagal]

18. fRump probably already owns the tribunal.

He seems to own everything else.

[0rganism]

19. "He Must" -- not sure how those words apply to Emperor Trump

just one more law he'll ignore and/or have overturned

[onenote]

20. Old story. GSA backed away from saying they've concluded anything

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/12/14/dems-gsa-says-trump-could-breach-lease-washington-hotel/95419452/