The watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington filed a complaint with the GSA over Trump's ownership stake in his D.C. hotel. | Getty Watchdog group files complaint over Trump's Washington hotel

The watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington greeted President Donald Trump's inauguration by filing a complaint over his ownership interest in the new Trump International Hotel, which sits on federal property and operates under a lease from the General Services Administration.

The group is urging GSA to declare that as of the time Trump was sworn in today he's in violation of a clause in the 60-year, $180 million lease that restricts the ability of government officials to benefit from it.


“Unless GSA has received new information demonstrating President Trump no longer owns Trump Old Post Office LLC, and there is no evidence it has, it is now time for GSA to initiate the process for establishing that President Trump’s company has breached the lease and is in default,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder wrote. “CREW requests that GSA initiate this process by immediately notifying Old Post Office LLC that it is in breach of the ground lease.”

Trump advisers say the lease provision is aimed at officials who are in office when the lease is being negotiated, not someone who becomes an official once the lease is already in place.

A GSA spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

