Donald Trump provided misleading information on the financial state of hotel: House Panel

Former US President Donald Trump supplied 'misleading information regarding the financial state' of his Washington hotel while in office, the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on October 8.

The committee, which just secured data from the General Services Administration, discovered that Trump claimed his hotel in downtown D.C. took in $150 million in revenue when he was president, but the business really lost more than $70 million.

"By filing these deceptive public filings, President Trump dramatically inflated the financial condition of the Trump Hotel," the committee stated in a news release issued on October 8.

Trump International Hotel received nearly $3.7 million from foreign governments

When Trump first requested to lease the Old Post Office Building for his hotel in 2011, he also furnished the federal government with information that appeared to conceal certain obligations," according to the committee. The panel records also reveal Trump didn't show outstanding amounts for properties he owned in other big cities such as New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

According to the committee, the newly released documents also show that the Trump International Hotel in D.C. received nearly $3.7 million in payments from foreign governments from 2017 to 2020, raising 'concerns about probable violations of the Constitution's Foreign Emoluments Clause.'

Trump received "substantial financial benefit" from Deutsche Bank while in the White House, allowing him to defer payments on the $170 million hotel loan, as per the committee reports. The committee went on to say that Trump did not publicly disclose this large benefit from a foreign bank while he was president.

The committee's chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said on October 8, Friday that the investigation into Trump's lease of the property will continue. Since Trump took office, the committee has been looking into the matter.

"For far too long, the president has concealed the truth about his money through his complicated network of business holdings," Maloney said. She further stated that the committee will relentlessly pursue its inquiry until the full truth is revealed so that Congress can address Trump's unsolved ethics crisis and prevent future presidents from benefitting from the presidency.

(With inputs from agencies)

Image: AP