Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia revived the lawsuit, with a three-judge panel ruling 2-1 that the lawmakers had been harmed.

In a 2020 ruling issued just before Trump left office, the U.S. The district court applied a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that said members of Congress cannot claim harm related to their official duties. Generally lawsuits can only move forward if the plaintiff can assert an injury that can be redressed by the court. The lawmakers in 2017 sued in federal court in Washington, seeking an order requiring GSA to disclose all the documents.Ī federal judge threw out the lawsuit, saying the lawmakers did not have standing. GSA, then controlled by the Trump administration, refused the request, although it later handed over many of the documents the lawmakers sought while withholding others. The House members submitted various requests, citing a federal law that requires executive agencies to provide information to members of Congress. (As a result of changes on the committee, including the death of Cummings in 2019, only five lawmakers remain involved in the case, according to the Justice Department.) Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sought access to documents relating to the agreement, questioning whether Trump had a conflict of interest. When Trump won the 2016 election, 17 Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Trump's company sold the lease last year and the hotel is now operating as a Waldorf Astoria. The Trump International Hotel operated throughout Trump's term, raising legal, ethical and constitutional concerns, including over whether people paying for rooms there were seeking to influence the White House. The case arose from a 2013 decision by the General Services Administration, which oversees federal real estate, to lease the Old Post Office Building in Washington to the family-owned Trump Organization so it could operate a hotel. The appeals court decision upended the historical practice of administrations negotiating with Congress over information requests, she added. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the administration, said in court papers that an appeals court decision allowing the lawsuit 'contradicts historical practice stretching to the beginning of the Republic' and 'threatens serious harm to all three branches of the federal government.' The former Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., on May 12, 2022.

Trump builds casino over house