The scene outside Trump International Hotel on Election Night. (Photo by Alex Kaufman)

Update 2: Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD) said that Democrats “stand 100 percent behind our letter” about the potential lease violations at the Old Post Office building when Donald Trump takes office.

In a statement, Cummings said that the breach “will not occur until Donald Trump is sworn in as president, and is officially viewed as a ‘hypothetical’ issue until that time … But the simple fact is that GSA informed our staffs that they interpret this lease provision as prohibiting any elected official from having any ownership interest in the lease.”

Update 1: In a statement, the General Services Administration is claiming that it has “does not have a position” about whether President-elect Donald Trump needs to divest his financial interests from his new D.C. hotel, contrary to a letter released by House Democrats today.

“We can make no definitive statement at this time about what would constitute a breach of the agreement, and to do so now would be premature,” the statement reads. “In fact, no determination regarding the Old Post Office can be completed until the full circumstances surrounding the President-elect’s business arrangements have been finalized and he has assumed office.”

Original: Once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he will be in violation of the lease for his new hotel at the Old Post Office building unless he sells it, Democratic lawmakers say an official from the General Services Administration told them.

Four Democratic members, including Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, released a letter today that outlines a briefing with the GSA deputy public building services commissioner about Trump’s lease with the the federal government.

“GSA assesses that Mr. Trump will be in breach of the lease agreement the moment he takes office on January 20, 2017, unless he fully divests himself of all financial interests in the lease for the Washington D.C. hotel,” the letter says in bold lettering. “The Deputy Commissioner made clear that Mr. Trump must divest himself not only of managerial control, but of all ownership interest as well.”

The specific part of the lease that Trump would be violating states that “No member or delegate to Congress, or 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 may arise therefrom.”

The Trump Organization and the GSA finalized negotiations over the 60-year lease for the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue in 2012, years before he began his bid for president. However, according to the letter, the GSA’s interpretation of this “standard clause” applies to people elected to office after signing.

If Trump doesn’t divest before the inauguration, the GSA official said the agency would follow its typical procedure. That means sending a letter informing the lease-holder that he has 30 days to respond. If the issue isn’t resolved, it is supposed to then go before the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, an independent GSA tribunal.

The GSA official told the Democrats that neither Trump nor his associates communicated with the agency about the issue during the campaign. After the election, the agency tried to talk to the transition team about it, but as of the briefing on Dec. 8, the GSA had not heard back.

Indeed, there is little indication that Trump or his family plan to divest from Trump International Hotel. Since the election, the hotel has been a hot spot for foreign diplomats and domestic associations. “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” one diplomat told The Washington Post.

The hotel represents one of many potential conflicts between Trump’s business holdings and national interests, made more complicated by the lack of transparency regarding what he owns and owes. Trump canceled a press conference initially scheduled this week to explain his plans for extricating himself from his business.

An “obvious” conflict of interest raised in the letter is Ivanka Trump, “the President-elect’s daughter, a top presidential transition team official, a lessee under the contract GSA oversees, and the primary contact for GSA on the lease.”

Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that, once in office, Trump would appoint people to the GSA who “might seek to overrule current career officials,” but the agency said that its contracting officials are independent. The members of Congress noted, however, that the “GSA relies on the Office of Government Ethics and the Department of Justice for guidelines on these questions.”

EEC DeFazio Connolly Carson to Roth Re Trump Hotel Conflicts … by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd