Top House lawmakers want to know more about the company vying to rent the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which has been the subject of much attention and criticism over the years.
- The Trump Organization is in the process of converting the hotel lease in the old post office building into the CGI Hospitality Opportunity Fund I
- LP, a Miami-based investment organization.
- According to a 21-page document, the Department of Public Services
which maintains the lease, completed its study of the proposed sale in March. Based on an internal investigation and a third party
officials found that CGI was a "qualified converter." The lease is said to be worth $375 million.
- "While the audit examined the proposed buyer's financial capacity and other factors such as its business reputation
- experience in owning and operating hotels and the ability to manage historical property
- it did not fully explore the identities of all investors in the CGI Hospitality Opportunity Fund or the potential conflict of interest of former President Trump in relation to the sale
- " Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jerry Connolly, D-Va.
- chairman of the House Government Operations Committee on Oversight and Reform, wrote to Raul Thomas, CEO of CGI Merchant Group
In addition, they wrote that "even taking into account the Trump Organization's past investments in the property, the sale price will bring the Trump Foundation a profit of at least $100 million, nearly three-quarters of which will flow to former President Trump."
Top House lawmakers want to know more about the company vying to rent the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which has been the subject of much attention and criticism over the years.
The Trump Organization is in the process of converting the hotel lease in the old post office building into the CGI Hospitality Opportunity Fund I, LP, a Miami-based investment organization. According to a 21-page document, the Department of Public Services, which maintains the lease, completed its study of the proposed sale in March. Based on an internal investigation and a third party, officials found that CGI was a "qualified converter." The lease is said to be worth $375 million.
"While the audit examined the proposed buyer's financial capacity and other factors such as its business reputation, experience in owning and operating hotels and the ability to manage historical property, it did not fully explore the identities of all investors in the CGI Hospitality Opportunity Fund or the potential conflict of interest of former President Trump in relation to the sale," Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Jerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the House Government Operations Committee on Oversight and Reform, wrote to Raul Thomas, CEO of CGI Merchant Group, on May 6. CGI Merchant Group is the director of the CGI Hospitality Opportunity Fund I, which aims to transform the Trump Hotel into the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, a Hilton luxury hotel.
According to lawmakers, some experts previously stated that the price of $375 million "represents a significant premium to market prices for the hotel which, according to documents obtained by the committee, has reported a loss of tens of millions of dollars since its opening in 2016," and that price "the lawmakers wrote. "It should be noted that this sale price is 10% higher - based on each room, or" per key "- than the highest price ever recorded at a hotel in Washington, D.C."
In addition, they wrote that "even taking into account the Trump Organization's past investments in the property, the sale price will bring the Trump Foundation a profit of at least $100 million, nearly three-quarters of which will flow to former President Trump."
- Virginia Kanter, senior ethics adviser at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, said In Washington
- the government executive branch on Monday that the oversight committee is justified in conducting this investigation is not just to learn more about The hotel's "excellent sale price"
- which was losing money but also to look for any potential national security issues due to the hotel location on Pennsylvania Avenue
- which is located between the U.S. Capitol and the White House. In addition, because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
- it must be investigated whether there were any Russian persons punished or other "bad actors" involved in the transaction, she said.
Kanter urged that the House committee consider other hotel bidders and their offers to see whether "the sale price offered by CGI represents a reasonable market value or inexplicable reward for President Trump and his family members upon his exit from the office," according to Kanter.
"It is too late to come back and change the past, but Congress has done little to prevent a recurrence of this farce in the future," Walter Schaub
who served as director of the Office of Government Ethics from January 2013 to July 2017 and is now in the government oversight project, wrote in his newsletter on May 5.
Our Democracy Protection Act was passed by the House of Representatives, which would prevent presidents from contracting with the federal government and clarify the emoluments clause. But bow, Shaub says, the Senate must act.
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