The Daily Fuckup

House Oversight Democrats are asking for more information about the investors behind CGI Merchant Group’s planned purchase of the lease for Trump’s Washington hotel. In a May 6 letter, Chair Carolyn Maloney and Rep. Gerald Connolly said the Miami-based firm had not provided the General Services Administration with the identities of all the investors in the deal and asked CGI to turn over that information to the committee.

The lease sale, which the committee said was reportedly worth $375 million, was set to close soon when the letter went out. Maloney and Connolly said the committee has long examined conflicts tied to former President Donald Trump’s lease at the Old Post Office building and argued that the size of the sale and the lack of transparency about the buyers raised fresh questions about who would ultimately profit from the transaction.

Their letter said the committee’s concerns grew after news that the Trump hotel and Trump’s inaugural committee agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a lawsuit over alleged overpayments tied to the 2017 inauguration. It also noted that the lease review at the General Services Administration focused on whether CGI met the standard for a qualified transferee, not on the broader conflict questions the committee has been pursuing.

The lawmakers did not call the sale itself illegal. Their request was narrower: identify the investors, explain the structure of the purchase, and give Congress a clearer picture of who stands to gain if the deal closes. The committee set a May 20 deadline for the company’s response.