Update: Congressional Democrats, Obama administration at odds over Trumps D.C. hotel [View all]

[Jose Garcia]

Source: The Washington Post

Federal officials overseeing Donald Trump’s lease for his D.C. hotel pushed back against congressional Democrats’ assertion Wednesday that the president-elect would violate a clause in the agreement if he did not surrender his interest upon entering office.

Congressional Democrats led by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) said early Wednesday that General Services Administration officials had informed them that Trump would need to divest his interest in his D.C. hotel before being sworn in to avoid running afoul of a clause in the lease barring any “elected official of the Government of the United States” from deriving “any benefit” from the agreement.

But a GSA spokeswoman responded with a statement saying the agency, which oversees federal real estate, “does not have a position that the lease provision requires the President-elect to divest of his financial interests.”

“We can make no definitive statement at this time about what would constitute a breach of the agreement, and to do so now would be premature,” the agency said. “In fact, no determination regarding the Old Post Office can be completed until the full circumstances surrounding the President-elect’s business arrangements have been finalized and he has assumed office. GSA is committed to responsibly administering all of the leases to which it is a party.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/digger/wp/2016/12/14/congressional-democrats-say-obama-administration-agrees-trump-must-sell-d-c-hotel/?utm_term=.3cc5044e4c72

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I remember hearing about this on NPR a week or two ago. They had a law school professor who specialized in government contracts who argued that was an open and shut case that Trump would have to give up the lease.