This Day in The Collaboration: The Defiling of the General Services Administration

This Day in The Collaboration

Yesterday, a contracting officer for the General Services Administration (GSA) sent a letter to Donald Trump, Jr., informing the Trump Organization that the lease for the Trump Hotel in the Old Post Office Building between the United States Government and the Trumps is still valid, notwithstanding the provision in the lease that unambiguously states that "no . . . elected official of the Government of the United States . . . shall be admitted to any share or part of this lease, or to any benefit that might arise therefrom."

Some  Background.

Shortly after the November 2016 election, procurement experts Daniel Gordon and Steven Schooner explained in The Washington Post  that Trump would have to give up the lease, because, as an elected official, he was barred from involvement or benefit in the arrangement. The lease provision was important, particularly if the “elected official” is President of the United States.  Any special interest seeking something from the Administration has every incentive to patronize the hotel. That is why the lease bars elected officials from having an interest in it.

Trump Response

The Trumps tried to find a way around the plain language of the lease.  But, as shown below, the arrangements they proposed were nothing more than deferred compensation for President Trump.  So every special interest seeking something from the Administration still has every incentive to patronize the hotel – and, indeed, many are doing so. Nevertheless, GSA Contracting Officer Kevin Terry has now accepted the arrangements.

So Many Outrages, So Little Front Page Space

The GSA letter was released the same week that President Trump's lies about President Barack Obama were definitively exposed, that the FBI revealed that President Trump's campaign is under investigation for collaborating with the Russian Government to undermine the candidacy of Trump's opponent in last year's general election, that Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court is very likely to undermine the rights of ordinary Americans, that Trump was trying to extort votes from the Dumb and Dumber/Mean and Meaner House Republican Caucus in order to deprive millions of people of health insurance and reward millionaires and billionaires with huge tax cuts.  So it is not really surprising that The Washington Post's report (U.S.: Trump hotel lease is compliant) on GSA's surrender to the Trumps is buried at page A14 of this morning's print edition.  (Perhaps the headline would have been more accurate if it had read, Hotel Lease: GSA is compliant.)  But this blizzard of outrages does not make the GSA surrender any the less significant.

National Public Radio, which is on the Trump Budget Chopping Block, bravely broadcast a useful report (GSA Says Trump D.C. Hotel Lease Is Valid, Despite Ban on Elected Officials), and the website post on the report includes the letter from Kevin Terry to Donald Trump, Jr.  Accurate reporting, going to the actual sources.

"Profile in No Courage"

This is the first “Profile in No Courage” from a federal civil servant in the Trump Era.  As Congressmen Cummings and DeFazio point out, this ruling from a government employee whose boss is President Trump is utterly absurd, rendering “meaningless” the vital lease provision, whose purpose is to stop corruption and back door – well, practically front door – bribery.   If you think Cummings and DeFazio are overstating the case, just read Mr. Terry's letter. At best, the arrangement amounts to deferred compensation to President Trump.  Money that otherwise would go directly to Donald Trump now will be plowed into the operation and maintenance of the hotel -- money which presumably is intended to increase the long term profitability of the hotel, inuring to Donald Trump's financial benefit once he leaves or is removed from office.

The terms of the lease are clear, and Trump is in clear violation of it. He plainly will be able to profit from moneys generated by the lease once he leaves office. If someone can get standing to sue and bring the matter to court, what would strict constructionist likely future Justice Gorsuch say? Bottom Line: Donald Trump is corrupt, and he is corrupting the Civil Service. As a retired career civil servant, I am embarrassed. May Mr. Terry and his supervisors be object lessons in how civil servants should not behave. The GSA will be tarnished for a long time.

Emoluments Clause

It is also noteworthy that Trump also asserts that any profits from business of the hotel with foreign governments will be turned over to the U.S. Treasury, thus presumably avoiding violation of the Constitution's Emoluments Clause. Two points here. First, if the rest of the arrangements save the lease – as Mr. Terry says they do -- then this step would be unnecessary.  Second, the bookkeeping arrangements on what would constitute profits and how compliance would be overseen are not disclosed; indeed, there may be no oversight at all, unless a Congressional committee chooses to engage in such oversight. Fat chance of that happening in the current Congress.  Yet another reason why the mid-term elections are so important.

Closing Thoughts

President Trump continues to thumb his nose at the American taxpayers and the United States Constitution.

As for Kevin Terry, whose absurd contortions probably insure protection of his job (and may be a basis for promotion) as long as Trump is president, he is a disgrace to the long line of dedicated civil servants who have declined to ignore the rule of law to satisfy their political bosses. The term "Good German" comes to mind. In the future, I suspect that ethics experts admonish their students to avoid pulling a "Kevin Terry."