EXCLUSIVE: Foreign government leases at Trump World Tower stir more emoluments concerns JuliaHarte1
WASHINGTON - The U.S. State Department allowed at least seven foreign governments to rent luxury condominiums in New York’s Trump World Tower in 2017 without approval from Congress, according to documents and people familiar with the leases, a potential violation of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause.
“This new information raises serious questions about the President and his businesses’ potential receipt of payments from foreign governments,” Cummings said in a statement to Reuters. “The American public deserves full transparency.” The governments of Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Thailand and the European Union got the green light to rent a combined eight units in Trump World Tower and followed through with leases, according to other documents viewed by Reuters and people familiar with the leases. Five of those governments - Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and the European Union - had also sought to rent units there in 2015 and 2016, State Department records showed.
When privately-owned units are leased, their owners typically use the rental income to cover those common charges, according to unit owners and real estate experts interviewed by Reuters. The State Department records did not make clear who owned the units in question. On Tuesday, a U.S. federal judge denied Trump’s motion to dismiss one of the emoluments lawsuits against him, saying Trump’s narrow definition of emoluments was “unpersuasive and inconsistent”. Courts may ultimately decide whether some of Trump’s business dealings violate the Constitution.
In 2017, the median monthly asking rent for units in Trump World Tower was $8,500, according to real estate website StreetEasy. That was more than 2.5 times the median in the surrounding neighborhood, known as Turtle Bay.
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