U.S. House Panel Urges Gov't: Junk Trump Hotel Lease Now

The House Oversight Committee is asking the General Services Administration (GSA) to junk the lease for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, before Donald Trump can sell it for $370 million in the light of allegations that the Trump Organization submitted false financial statements to the federal government, Kara Scammell and Katelyn Polantz reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: The Trump Hotel International Hotel, Old Post Office Building

The Democratic-led committee said false statements or certifications may constitute a breach of the lease of the Old Post Office, the historic, government-owned building the Trump Hotel occupies.

The committee request comes as the Trump Organization stands to make a profit of $100 million from the sale of the hotel lease to a Miami-based investment group for $370 million, according to a letter from the panel to the GSA.

The agency is reviewing that pending deal and has become aware that Trump hid the fact that the hotel had lost $70 million.

"No one should be rewarded for providing false or misleading information to the federal government or for seeking to profit off the presidency," the committee wrote. Defeated president Donald Trump obtained the lease for the hotel years before he came into office.

The committee's letter also comes days after Trump's longtime accounting firm Mazars USA LLP advised that nearly a decade's worth of the Trump Organization's financial statements should no longer be relied on and after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed allegations that the business inflated values of certain assets on various financial statements.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and says the investigation is politically motivated. The committee's letter makes clear that Trump's submission of information to the GSA was in 2010, a year earlier than the 10-year set of financial statements Mazars has lost confidence in.

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