(Washington Insider Magazine) -The House Oversight Committee released documents showing former president Donald Trump lost more than $70 million from his Washington, DC, hotel over four years, despite publicly claiming that the hotel was making more than tens of millions of dollars.
For years, Trump did not disclose that the hotel received millions from foreign governments, payments, and deferrals, which raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest during his presidency.
The committee’s review and release of the former president’s financial information mark the committee’s first examination of the data. Still, the Trump Organization disputed the committee’s understanding of accounting and denied any wrongdoing. New York’s attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney have reviewed Trump’s financial statements, but they have yet to be made public.
According to federal financial disclosures, between 2016 to 2020, Trump reported $156 million in income from the Trump International Hotel.
However, according to hotel financial statements obtained by the committee, Trump’s DC hotel incurred losses of more than $70 million during those four years and subsequently had to borrow more than at least $27 million from one of Trump’s holding companies between 2017 through 2020. This holding company is known as DJT Holdings LLC. Rather than loan repayments of more than $24 million in loan payments being repaid, they were instead converted to capital contributions.
The committee analyzed the documents and concluded that Trump hotels received an estimated $3.7 million in foreign government money.
House lawmakers have been seeking information about foreign payments to Trump businesses since his presidency for years. Democratic lawsuits under the emoluments clause of the Constitution were unsuccessful. Congress should be able to approve any gifts from foreign governments given to officeholders under the emoluments clause, an anti-corruption provision written by the nation’s founders. Despite the House’s years-long interest in reviewing Trump’s finances, congressional approval for foreign payments the Trump Organisation accepted never came to pass.
In addition, US committee members claimed Trump received “undisclosed preferential treatment” from Deutsche Bank for a construction loan worth $170 million.
As posted on the Trump Hotel’s website, the loan terms initially required that principal payments began in 2018, but those terms were revised in 2018 so that payments could be deferred by six years.
A Trump Organization spokesperson disagreed with the committee’s findings and felt they were misleading and false. The spokesperson felt the committee didn’t understand basic accounting principles.
It is simply an attempt by the White House to mislead the American public and defame Trump in pursuit of their plan,” said the spokesperson.
“The loan terms did not change, and payment was not deferred, a person familiar with the matter said.” Deutsche Bank also accused the committee of making “several inaccurate statements.”
The House Oversight Committee and the GSA have been contacted for comment by CNN.
GSA handed over a set of Trump’s audited financial statements for 2014 through 2020, developed by Weiser Mazars, Trump’s accounting firm, and three years of Trump’s statement of financial condition prepared by Mazars.
For years, the House has unsuccessfully pursued Trump’s tax returns and other financial documents from Mazars USA and Deutsche Bank.
The documents released Friday raise many concerns about the lease with the General Services Administration and the former President’s conflicts of interest during his term in office when he engaged in contracts as landlord and tenant.
Moreover, the committee is asking the GSA to produce more documents within the next two weeks.
The GSA leased the Old Post Office building was leased in 2012 by the GSA, which manages federal buildings and land. When he was a Republican presidential candidate in 2016, Trump opened the hotel.
GSA’s management of Trump’s hotel lease has been under investigation by the Oversight Committee since then.
When he took office, Trump resigned from his businesses, but he transferred his assets to a trust controlled by his sons. As a result, he continues to benefit financially from the DC hotel and his other businesses.
After Trump was elected to the White House in November 2016, the GSA inspector general declared that the agency had “ignored the Constitution” by maintaining the hotel’s lease.
