Federal Government Policy and Business

Lawmakers: GSA Found Trump Will Breach His Hotel Lease, Absent Divestment

Government Executive: In the latest twist in the unprecedented ethics dispute over President-elect Trump’s luxury hotel in Washington’s Old Post Office Building, four House Democrats Wednesday said the General Services Administration has determined that the hotel lease does in fact pose a conflict of interest that must be addressed before Inauguration Day.

The Democrats on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee wrote a Dec. 14 letter to GSA Administrator Denise Turner Roth offering their take on weeks of written exchanges and meetings with GSA Public Buildings Service Deputy Commissioner Michael Gelber. The “deputy commissioner informed our staff that GSA assesses that Mr. Trump will be in breach of the lease agreement the moment he takes office on January 20, 2017, unless he fully divests himself of all financial interests in the lease for the Washington D.C. hotel,” the lawmakers said. “The deputy commissioner made clear that Mr. Trump must divest himself not only of managerial control, but of all ownership interest as well.”

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