WASHINGTON — A congressional committee suggested Thursday that the U.S. government considers cancelling former President Donald Trump’s lease of a Washington historic building that he converted into a luxurious hotel.
According to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, recent developments suggest that Trump Organization might have submitted incorrect financial statements when he leased the property from the government before he ran for President.
The two leading Democrats on this panel, Gerald Connolly from Virginia and Carolyn Maloney from New York, wrote to request that the General Services Administration, federal property manager, consider ending the lease rather than allowing him profit.
They wrote that “no one should be rewarded if they provide false or misleading information to Congress or for trying to profit from the presidency.”
Near the White House at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, the hotel became a meeting point for Trump supporters as well as some foreign officials. It was also a point of contention for critics who claimed it violated ethics laws.
According to media reports, Trump’s company made a deal to sell the hotel, which was losing money, to Miami investment firm CGI Merchant Group. This could have netted him a profit of $100 million.
Letitia James, New York’s Attorney General, has accused Trump and his relatives of misrepresenting their real property assets to get bank loans and lower taxes. Trump, a Republican has accused James, a Democrat of a political witch-hunt.
Mazars USA, Trump’s former accounting firm said this month that it couldn’t stand behind a decade worth of financial statements and was dropping the Trump Organization.
These developments, the committee stated, cast doubt on financial statements that Trump Organization submitted in 2010 and 2013 when it applied to a construction loan.
