UPDATED: Ethics Issue 'Nonsense,' Said Official Who Cleared Trump Hotel
Source: Bloomberg
By Ben Brody
July 3, 2017, 7:35 AM EDT
Shortly after Donald Trump won the presidential election, the U.S. official who oversees the lease of his signature Washington hotel offered Trumps company an assessment of a report about its potential conflict of interest: Nonsense.
Four months later, the same official [link:https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-23/trump-washington-hotel-not-violating-lease-u-s-officials-saycleared] Trumps company to keep its lease for the Trump International Hotel Washington DC. throughout the presidents time in office -- a decision that may have saved Trump millions of dollars, based on a statement his lawyers made in a court filing in May.
One of Trumps companies operates the hotel in a building it leases from the federal government. Trumps election effectively put him in charge of his own landlord, the General Services Administration. The arrangement has drawn scrutiny from ethicists, lawyers and Democrats in Congress since November.
Kevin Terry, the GSAs contracting officer in charge of the hotel lease, referred to the issue in a Nov. 11, 2016, email to Trumps company, forwarding an [link:https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/federalagencyinbusinesswithtrump?utm_term.kyyoDRb5a#.fkzKrDqWxarticle] from the news site BuzzFeed that said his agency had acknowledged the potential conflict of interest.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-03/ethics-issue-nonsense-says-official-who-cleared-trump-hotel
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Official Called Trump Ethics Concerns Nonsense Before Approving DC Hotel
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published JULY 3, 2017 1:56 PM
A federal official dismissed concerns that it would pose a conflict of interest for President Donald Trump to serve as both landlord and tenant of his real estate companys Washington, D.C. hotel, which is housed in a government-owned building, before approving Trumps ongoing control of the lease.
As Bloomberg reported Monday, Kevin Terry, the General Services Administrations contracting officer, emailed a Trump Organization executive three days after the 2016 election to brush off a BuzzFeed article about the possible conflict of interest.
FYI A fair amount of nonsense, Terry wrote, according to documents the publication obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Terry later wrote in a decision reached March 23 that Trumps company was in full compliance with the lease and could keep it.
Terry, the GSA, the White House and the Trump Organization did not respond to Bloombergs requests for comment.
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