The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump’s lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel in Washington — might violate the Constitution when it allowed Trump to keep the lease after he took office, according to a new report from the agency’s inspector general. . . The report does not recommend that Trump’s lease be canceled. Instead, the inspector general recommends a new legal review of the deal.
Somewhat improbably, GSA found “no political pressure on the agency — from Trump or anyone else — to let the newly elected president keep his lease.”
Let’s take a look at that last part. The federal court that allowed an emoluments lawsuit brought by Maryland and the District of Columbia recounted (on page 49):
Plaintiffs allege that the Hotel received an emolument from the Federal Government in the form of the GSA Lease, which governs the Hotel’s use of the Old Post Office Building in the District of Columbia, where the Hotel is situated. . . . Plaintiffs allege that, before the President’s inauguration, the then-Deputy Commissioner of the GSA indicated that the President would be in violation of the Lease unless he fully divested himself of all financial interests in it. . . . Shortly after his inauguration, the President replaced the Acting Administrator of the GSA. Id. Plaintiffs allege that several weeks later, on March 16, 2017, less than two months into his term, the President released a proposed budget for 2018 that increased the GSA’s funding, while cutting back on other the funding of other agencies. . . . On March 23, 2017, the GSA issued a letter determining that the President and the Hotel were not in violation of the Lease. . . . Plaintiffs allege that the GSA’s abrupt about-face position was and is in direct contradiction of the plain terms of the Lease and that, by determining that the Hotel was and is in compliance with the Lease, the Federal Government bestowed upon the President an emolument in violation of the Domestic Emoluments Clause.
That sure sounds like the fix was in.
