Trump hid foreign payments from his DC hotel, House panel finds

A US congressional committee has found that former US President Donald Trump hid millions of dollars in payments from foreign governments that came through his lavish hotel in Washington, DC.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, has served as a popular gathering spot for Trump's supporters, foreign dignitaries, and his fellow Republicans during his time in office.

The hotel lost tens of millions of dollars in the four years that Trump was president, even as he was claiming big profits on the operation, according to documents unveiled on Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.

The House committee said hotel records raise "troubling" questions about Trump’s hotel, which sits just blocks from the White House.

The Democratic-controlled committee said Trump reported that the hotel earned him more than $150 million during his time in office, but actually lost more than $70 million, Reuters reported.

The hotel received over $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments, posing a potential conflict of interest, the committee found.

The US Constitution prohibits the president from procuring payments, or "emoluments," from foreign governments because it creates a clash of interests.

The committee said Trump’s hotel handed over a portion of that money to the US government but failed to provide details of those payments to the General Services Administration (GSA), the agency that manages federal properties.

The hotel has been a source of controversy since Trump clinched the presidency in 2016 because it hosted many foreign dignitaries, business leaders and other powerful figures who had vested interests in US foreign policy and domestic regulation.

The lawyers representing Trump, however, have argued in court cases that his ownership of the hotel did not violate these constitutional provisions.

Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the head of the Oversight and Reform panel, and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who chairs the committee's subpanel on government operations, say the documents expose that Trump had misled the GSA by filing erroneous financial disclosure forms over that span, claiming huge profits on an operation that was in loss.

Meanwhile, Trump's company, the Trump Organization, is also under pressure to comply with a New York state civil probe into the firm’s financial dealings.

A judge in New York had ordered Trump’s company to report on its efforts to furnish records subpoenaed by the state attorney general.

The court was looking into whether Trump misled banks and insurers about the value of his financial assets.

Trump Organization faces new scrutiny in New York civil probe

Former US President Donald Trump

The court order also offers New York state Attorney General Letitia James (D) a possible avenue to bring on a third party to assist with collecting company records for the investigation. 

The Trump Organization and the New York state attorney have been clashing over her office’s requests for documents and depositions.

Trump has harshly criticized the criminal probe into the Trump Organization, describing as a "continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History."

The investigation into the Trump Organization was launched after congressional testimony by his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who turned on his former boss since pleading guilty in 2018 to various fraud and campaign finance charges.

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