Trumps Small Business Chief Gave Speech at His Hotel, but Aides Tried to Keep Location Quiet
Source: Newsweek
About a month after media outlets stirred controvery by reporting that Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch would be speaking at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., the head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), Linda McMahon, spoke to an industry group there. Though the group did not keep secret the location of its event, McMahon’s aides tried to keep it quiet, newly obtained documents show.
The Trump Hotel, which opened in September 2016, has raised concerns among ethics watchdogs because guests who stay or host events there are in theory giving money to the family of the president of the United States. Analysts have also pointed out that the Trump Organization is leasing the property from the General Services Administration, a federal agency under President Donald Trump. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), a business lobbying group, chose the spot for its Federal Outreach Tour, an annual event during which board members meet with government insiders that took place in September. In July, LABI invited McMahon to speak at the event. In its earliest communications with the administrator and her team, LABI said the event, a breakfast with 30 or so board members, would take place at the Trump Hotel.
During the event, McMahon spoke for about 20 minutes at a podium with a “Trump Hotels” sign. The topics included hurricane relief, SBA initiatives in Louisiana and tax reform.
While LABI said publicly on its website it was holding the event at the Trump Hotel, the SBA seems to have worked to keep quiet about McMahon’s having appeared there, according to documents that the nonpartisan group American Oversight obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and provided exclusively to Newsweek.
Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/linda-mcmahon-small-business-trump-hotel-speech-labi-691231
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