At least seven foreign governments reportedly rented space in Trump World Tower in New York in 2017 without congressional approval.
The rentals took place in the months following President Trump’s inauguration, according to Reuters, which cited documents and people familiar with the leases. Staffers on Capitol Hill told the news service that the lease requests were never submitted to Congress.
The leases, involving the governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand and the European Union, were approved by the State Department, according to Reuters.
While the 90-story skyscraper has rented to diplomats and foreign officials for years, some legal experts said failing to obtain congressional approval now that Trump is president raises issues under the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which bans U.S. officials from accepting unapproved gifts or payments from foreign governments.
“Letting this go without Congress knowing about it condones the creation of a second, opaque track of foreign policy,” Harold Hongju Koh, a professor at Yale Law School and former legal adviser at the State Department, told Reuters. “What it might lead to is a group of countries enriching the people in power on the mistaken belief that it’s going to improve their access.”
“This new information raises serious questions about the President and his businesses’ potential receipt of payments from foreign governments,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement to the news service. “The American public deserves full transparency.”
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#BREAKING: Foreign governments rented condos in Trump World Tower in 2017 without approval from Congress: report https://t.co/VIF1pnUV4x pic.twitter.com/H7Dxlkmnb4
— The Hill (@thehill) May 2, 2019
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