It’s pretty black and white to me. The law says “no elected official shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease”. The only exception was for an elected official who owned shares of a publicly traded company who owned the lease. Clearly Trump’s private shell company setup specifically to hold the lease doesn’t fit that description.
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Why aren’t we privy to knowing HOW they came to that conclusion?
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Trump has repeatedly shown that he has first class lawyers working for him. Whenever a legal issue comes up, his attorneys have already aced the situation. Trump is smart enough to have good legal staff to run interference for him. I look forward to comments on this thread from TPM legal commenters.
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Patently ridiculous. Nothing but sophistry based on corporate forms and the existence of a trust and ignoring practical reality. What a fucking joke.
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Vote not happening today
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It’s ridiculous. Even if they don’t distribute anything to him now, it’s just a holding mechanism until he leaves office. The actual act of handing him income from the property isn’t the only issue at play here.
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No, Trump has proven that his lawyers are willing to try anything. It remains to be seen as to whether any of these decisions stand when actually challenged.
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Don’t worry. I’m sure our strict construction court system will strictly construe the meaning of the terms of the lease, and will rule against a federal agency “issues rulings through decrees and regulations” any second now…
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yes, the rule of law tends to focus on the black and white…
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The letter explains the decision. It is signed by the contracting officer. I assume it is appealable. And I hope someone appeals.
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The best representation (Russian) money can buy.
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Guess it’s ok if the president’s family benefits… What a load of crap. Trump’s breathtaking corruption has just been enabled. Unbelievable!
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Get used to it. Lot’s more of this to come. Trump’s going to walk on the Russia thing and soon the media will be swooning over his fix of healthcare. It’s not going to stop. Outrage will always be followed by acceptance. He’s a GOP’er. That’s how it works for them.
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The letter stated that Trump transferred his interests in the hotel’s membership corporation to “DJT Holdings Managing Member LLC” on Jan. 23, and noted that the hotel added an amendment to its operating agreement ensuring that it “will not make any distributions to DJT Holdings LLC or to any other entity in which President Trump has a direct, indirect or beneficial interest” while Trump is in office.
Well, that’s a little like saying a burglar didn’t make illegal entry to the house, because he hid in the closet where no one could find him.
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Terry, who is the process of purchasing a new car, new home, and new vacation home, added “Nyahh nyahh, HaHahahahahahahahahahaha!”
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I’m guessing the vote never happens. The GOP isn’t suicidal, I fear.
I predicted a long time ago that the GOP will maneuver a repeal and replace that essentially replaces “Obamacare” with the ACA plus tweaks like allowing insurance sales across state lines and token tort reform.
ETA: Oh, and few tax cuts to the wealthy. They can’t help themselves.
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Generalissimo Trump may as well start designing his own faux military uniform.
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In other news today, the Ministry of Truth has issued a letter finding that freedom is slavery, war is peace, and ignorance is strength. Detailed reports will be available at REDACTED FOR SECURITY REASONS.
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This may turn out to be useful at some point. Because now that the GSA is officially relying on those representations of no benefit to keep the lease going, it follows that it’s perfectly reasonable for an inspector general to conduct an audit to make sure the paperwork is being followed.
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It appears to have been made by the same career contracting officer who has been handling the whole process since 2011. An agency looking for a clean opinion would have had the lease reviewed by someone from outside the process.
If you read the GSA letter signed by that contracting officer, I think you will agree that the contracting officer is rather defensive about the lease.
My legal opinion is worth at least the $0.00 I’ve spent on legal education, but I find the reasoning in the letter to be far from sound. What it appears to be saying is that, because there will be no cash distributions during the Trump presidency to an entity that benefits Trump, there’s no violation of the lease terms. But, what is happening in place of any cash distributions is that any distributions not made are treated as capital contributions by Trump – in other words, his share of the entity leasing the hotel actually increases.
That might be a little confusing, but there is a very similar arrangement that might be easier to understand.
If you own shares of a publicly traded company that pays a dividend, you normally get the dividend paid in cash. That dividend is like the “distributions” mentioned in the letter.
For most public companies that pay dividends, your broker will let you choose a “dividend-reinvestment” plan. Instead of having the dividend added to your account as cash, it is used to purchase additional shares of stock. No cash is distributed to you, but you now own more shares – a bigger piece of the company. The dividend-reinvestment plan is like the arrangement described in the GSA letter.
If I were to tell you that I no longer receive “any benefit that may arise” from ownership of a piece of XYZ Corp., because I use a dividend-reinvestment plan instead of getting cash dividends, I would be bullshitting.
There may be more to the letter and the attachments that I am missing, but, aside from the dividend-reinvestment bullshitting, all I see is a web of trusts and LLCs that have the hotel lease at one end and Donald Trump and three of his kids at the other end. If the contracting officer is trying to make the case that, because there is a lot of org-chart spaghetti in the middle, Trump does not hold “a share or part of this Lease,” he is doing worse than bullshitting.
Edited to add: While I was writing my very wordy reply, @Sniffit gave the essentials and had time to take in a movie:
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