SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
An artist projected "Pay Trump bribes here" and "emoluments welcome" onto the facade of the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. in 2017. (Photo: igorvolsky/Twitter)
"We're Looking at Near Raw Bribery": House Dems Investigating Whether Groups Tried to Curry Favor With Trump Through Hotel Bookings
"It seems evidence of Trump's corruption is hiding under every rock. You just need the courage to look."
Oct 02, 2019
As part of the Democrats' broad impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform is reportedly investigating whether groups booked reservations for rooms that were then left empty at Trump hotels in attempts to curry favor with the president.
According to Politico, which broke the news on Wednesday, the hotel investigation is "a previously unreported part of a broader examination by the House Oversight Committee... into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties."
"The investigation began after the committee received information that two entities--a trade association and a foreign government--booked a large quantity of rooms but only used a fraction of them," Politico reported, citing an unnamed source.
Tim Karr of the advocacy group Free Press tweeted in response to Politico's report: "It seems evidence of Trump's corruption is hiding under every rock. You just need the courage to look."
"Now we're looking at near raw bribery," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chair of Oversight's Subcommittee on Government Operations, which has jurisdiction over Trump's hotel in Washington. Oversight is one of six House committees participating in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
"That was the risk from day one--foreign governments and others trying to seek favor because we know Trump pays attention to this," Connolly told Politico. "It's an obvious attempt to curry favor with him."
Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.), another member of the House Oversight Committee, said that "if true, at minimum this suggests there is a culture of corruption that the administration has created."
"There's a sense that to curry favor you have to engage in pay to play," Khanna added. "That's exactly what the American people hate about Washington."
The U.S. Constitution contains a pair of "emoluments clauses." One bars federal officeholders from accepting gifts or other things of value from foreign governments or its representatives; and one bars the president from receiving any "emolument" from the U.S. federal government or the states other than the official compensation for his elected position. American watchdog groups have long accused Trump of violating the emoluments clauses by inappropriately benefiting from his business empire.
In January of 2017, then-President-elect Trump provoked widespread outrage by announcing that--unlike past presidents and despite pressure to sell off his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust--he would hand over control of his businesses to his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, along with longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg.
Since then, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has challenged Trump's refusal to divest and alleged violations of the emoluments clauses in federal court. Public Citizen has documented instances of political candidates, foreign governments, interest groups, other private entities, U.S. federal agencies, and Trump's own presidential campaign collectively spending millions of dollars at Trump properties.
Last week, the White House released a memo detailing the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally launch the impeachment inquiry. During the call, Zelensky supposedly told Trump, "last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower."
Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, who described Zelensky's remark as an attempt to flatter Trump, said that "this kind of casual corruption is an inevitable outgrowth of Trump's refusal to divest his business holdings and his everyday violation of Constitution's anti-corruption clause."
Trump, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. Last month, following reports that Vice President Mike Pence had stayed at a Trump property in Ireland at the president's "suggestion," Trump said: "I had no involvement, other than it's a great place. It wasn't my idea for Mike to go there."
"I don't suggest anything," the president added. "I have a lot of hotels all over the place, and people, they use them because they're the best."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
As part of the Democrats' broad impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform is reportedly investigating whether groups booked reservations for rooms that were then left empty at Trump hotels in attempts to curry favor with the president.
According to Politico, which broke the news on Wednesday, the hotel investigation is "a previously unreported part of a broader examination by the House Oversight Committee... into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties."
"The investigation began after the committee received information that two entities--a trade association and a foreign government--booked a large quantity of rooms but only used a fraction of them," Politico reported, citing an unnamed source.
Tim Karr of the advocacy group Free Press tweeted in response to Politico's report: "It seems evidence of Trump's corruption is hiding under every rock. You just need the courage to look."
"Now we're looking at near raw bribery," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chair of Oversight's Subcommittee on Government Operations, which has jurisdiction over Trump's hotel in Washington. Oversight is one of six House committees participating in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
"That was the risk from day one--foreign governments and others trying to seek favor because we know Trump pays attention to this," Connolly told Politico. "It's an obvious attempt to curry favor with him."
Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.), another member of the House Oversight Committee, said that "if true, at minimum this suggests there is a culture of corruption that the administration has created."
"There's a sense that to curry favor you have to engage in pay to play," Khanna added. "That's exactly what the American people hate about Washington."
The U.S. Constitution contains a pair of "emoluments clauses." One bars federal officeholders from accepting gifts or other things of value from foreign governments or its representatives; and one bars the president from receiving any "emolument" from the U.S. federal government or the states other than the official compensation for his elected position. American watchdog groups have long accused Trump of violating the emoluments clauses by inappropriately benefiting from his business empire.
In January of 2017, then-President-elect Trump provoked widespread outrage by announcing that--unlike past presidents and despite pressure to sell off his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust--he would hand over control of his businesses to his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, along with longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg.
Since then, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has challenged Trump's refusal to divest and alleged violations of the emoluments clauses in federal court. Public Citizen has documented instances of political candidates, foreign governments, interest groups, other private entities, U.S. federal agencies, and Trump's own presidential campaign collectively spending millions of dollars at Trump properties.
Last week, the White House released a memo detailing the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally launch the impeachment inquiry. During the call, Zelensky supposedly told Trump, "last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower."
Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, who described Zelensky's remark as an attempt to flatter Trump, said that "this kind of casual corruption is an inevitable outgrowth of Trump's refusal to divest his business holdings and his everyday violation of Constitution's anti-corruption clause."
Trump, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. Last month, following reports that Vice President Mike Pence had stayed at a Trump property in Ireland at the president's "suggestion," Trump said: "I had no involvement, other than it's a great place. It wasn't my idea for Mike to go there."
"I don't suggest anything," the president added. "I have a lot of hotels all over the place, and people, they use them because they're the best."
As part of the Democrats' broad impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform is reportedly investigating whether groups booked reservations for rooms that were then left empty at Trump hotels in attempts to curry favor with the president.
According to Politico, which broke the news on Wednesday, the hotel investigation is "a previously unreported part of a broader examination by the House Oversight Committee... into whether Trump broke the law by accepting money from U.S. or foreign governments at his properties."
"The investigation began after the committee received information that two entities--a trade association and a foreign government--booked a large quantity of rooms but only used a fraction of them," Politico reported, citing an unnamed source.
Tim Karr of the advocacy group Free Press tweeted in response to Politico's report: "It seems evidence of Trump's corruption is hiding under every rock. You just need the courage to look."
"Now we're looking at near raw bribery," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), chair of Oversight's Subcommittee on Government Operations, which has jurisdiction over Trump's hotel in Washington. Oversight is one of six House committees participating in the ongoing impeachment inquiry.
"That was the risk from day one--foreign governments and others trying to seek favor because we know Trump pays attention to this," Connolly told Politico. "It's an obvious attempt to curry favor with him."
Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-Calif.), another member of the House Oversight Committee, said that "if true, at minimum this suggests there is a culture of corruption that the administration has created."
"There's a sense that to curry favor you have to engage in pay to play," Khanna added. "That's exactly what the American people hate about Washington."
The U.S. Constitution contains a pair of "emoluments clauses." One bars federal officeholders from accepting gifts or other things of value from foreign governments or its representatives; and one bars the president from receiving any "emolument" from the U.S. federal government or the states other than the official compensation for his elected position. American watchdog groups have long accused Trump of violating the emoluments clauses by inappropriately benefiting from his business empire.
In January of 2017, then-President-elect Trump provoked widespread outrage by announcing that--unlike past presidents and despite pressure to sell off his assets and put the proceeds in a blind trust--he would hand over control of his businesses to his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, along with longtime Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg.
Since then, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has challenged Trump's refusal to divest and alleged violations of the emoluments clauses in federal court. Public Citizen has documented instances of political candidates, foreign governments, interest groups, other private entities, U.S. federal agencies, and Trump's own presidential campaign collectively spending millions of dollars at Trump properties.
Last week, the White House released a memo detailing the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that prompted Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally launch the impeachment inquiry. During the call, Zelensky supposedly told Trump, "last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower."
Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, who described Zelensky's remark as an attempt to flatter Trump, said that "this kind of casual corruption is an inevitable outgrowth of Trump's refusal to divest his business holdings and his everyday violation of Constitution's anti-corruption clause."
Trump, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. Last month, following reports that Vice President Mike Pence had stayed at a Trump property in Ireland at the president's "suggestion," Trump said: "I had no involvement, other than it's a great place. It wasn't my idea for Mike to go there."
"I don't suggest anything," the president added. "I have a lot of hotels all over the place, and people, they use them because they're the best."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.