President's hotels offer ABA member discounts

Welcome to 1100 Pennsylvania, a newsletter devoted to President Donald Trump’s Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. (and his other companies). President Trump, of course, still owns his businesses and can profit from them.

If you like what you see, tell someone—and support this work by paying for a subscription. If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, subscribe for yourself at zacheverson.substack.com. Questions? Read our FAQ/manifesto. Tips or feedback? Contact me, Zach Everson, securely via email at 1100Pennsylvania@protonmail.com or on Signal at 202.804.2744.

ICYMI: New details emerge about Nigerian, Italian politicians’ visits

Be sure to check out yesterday’s 1100 Pennsylvania:

• Nigerian presidential candidate holds town hall at U.S. president’s hotel

• Italian deputy minister of foreign affairs meets Trump’s personal advisors at Trump’s hotel

American Bar Association announces 2019 member discounts at Chicago, New York hotels

Last week the American Bar Association—a group which likely has members who represent President Trump in the courts, work for plaintiffs who’ve filed suit against him, serve as judges presiding over cases involving the president, and are federal or state lawmakers—announced its 2019 first quarter hotel deals for members. The 37 properties offering promotions included the Trump Hotels in Chicago and New York (room upgrades, complimentary premium WiFi, and a hotel credit or discounts).

As of last June, Trump’s D.C. hotel offered ABA members a similar deal, with the hotel’s director of corporate sales even alerting some ABA members to its offer via email. The D.C. property, however, appears to no longer be participating in the ABA’s member-discount program.

Representatives of both the Trump Org and the D.C. hotel did not respond to an email in June asking if ABA’s members’ political and legal connections had anything to do with their decision to offer the group this discount.

Conservative media use photo of Native American elder protesting at hotel in 2017 to try to discredit his account of weekend confrontation

Some conservative media outlets are using a 2017 image of Nathan Phillips playing a drum in front of the Trump Hotel D.C. in an attempt to discredit the Native American veteran’s account of his run-in with a student group outside the Lincoln Memorial this Saturday.

Both Big League Politics and Gateway Pundit ran articles about the photo, using it to describe Phillips as having “a history of left-wing and anti-Trump activism” (Big League Politics) and being a “liberal activist” (Gateway Pundit). Neither article explains why those categorizations should discredit Phillips’s account of what transpired Saturday though.

The photo shows Phillips on April 27, 2017 participating in the Indigenous Environmental Network’s Native Round Dance “to send a message to the Trump administration and its corporate interests that our Native resistance will not be silenced.” The protest took place on the sidewalk in front of the hotel’s Pennsylvania Avenue facade.

Your correspondent observed that demonstration, which drew maybe a couple of hundred people when I was there at 9 p.m. The only inconvenience my notes mention was that some passersby had to briefly step into the street to get around participants on the crowded sidewalk. Inside the hotel, at its lobby bar, the round dance was barely audible, much less disruptive. It was over by 10:05 p.m. A video clip The Washington Post published the day after the protest also doesn’t give any reason to discredit a participant’s account of an unrelated event two years later.

Noteworthy sightings

Today News Africa reports that Nigerian Senate president Bukola Saraki and Rep. Nnenna Ukeje Elendu also were at the Trump Hotel D.C. late last week with presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.

The hotel’s managing director, Mickael Damelincourt, shared “great feedback” from a guest that called the hotel “the most expensive” she or he has ever stayed at.

Legal cases, current status (latest change, Jan. 11, 2018)

• D.C. and MD attorneys general’s emoluments lawsuit (district court docket, appellate court docket)—

  • Official capacity—On Dec. 20, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it would hear the president’s appeal of district court rulings that allowed the case to proceed to discovery, and the appellate court halted discovery in the case. Oral augments on the appeal are tentatively scheduled for March 19–21, although on Dec. 26 the briefing schedule was suspended until further notice after Trump’s DoJ attorneys asked for a stay because of the federal government shutdown. (Discovery had started Dec. 3 and was scheduled to run through Aug. 2, 2019, with the AGs already having issued 38 subpoenas, including to the Trump Organization; the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Treasury and the GSA; and the state of Maine.)

  • Individual capacity—On Dec. 14, Trump’s personal attorneys appealed the denial of their motion to dismiss the case, also to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Dec. 19, the AGs replied to Trump’s motion for a stay pending that appeal by voluntarily dismissing the claims against Trump in his “individual capacity to allow the claims against President Trump in his official capacity to move forward expeditiously.” (The AGs only brought suit against Trump in his individual capacity after the judge suggested they do so.) Trump’s personal attorneys, on Dec. 21, opposed the motion to dismiss at the district level, saying the appeals court now has jurisdiction and accusing the AGs of “gamesmanship.”

• 196 Democratic senators and representatives’ emoluments lawsuit—On Sept. 28 judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled that the legislators have standing to sue. Trump’s Justice Department attorneys filed an interlocutory appeal on Oct. 22.

• CREW et. al’s emoluments lawsuit—In February, CREW appealed its suit being dismissed for lack of standing to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments on that motion were held on Oct. 30.

• Cork’s unfair competition lawsuit—Judge Richard J. Leon dismissed the case on Nov. 26, writing “Cork has failed to state a claim for unfair competition under D.C. law.” On Dec. 10, Cork’s attorneys filed a notice of appeal and on Jan. 10 they submitted a statement of issues to be raised. The next steps, which don’t yet have a timeline, include a briefing schedule being set and both sides filing appellate briefs.

• Employees’ class-action suit alleging racial discrimination—A status hearing on arbitration is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2019.

Health inspections, current status (latest change, Aug. 10, 2018)

• ❌Hotel: five violations on May 7, 2018; two were corrected on site

• ❌BLT Prime and Benjamin Bar: nine violations on Aug. 10, 2018

• ❌Sushi Nakazawa: two violations on Aug. 10, 2018

• ✔️Banquet kitchen: no violations on Aug. 10, 2018

• ❌Pastry kitchen: two violations on Aug. 10, 2018

• ✔️Gift shop: no violations on May 7, 2018

• ❌Employee kitchen and in-room dining: five violations on Aug. 10, 2018; two were corrected on site

Other Trump Organization news

• “‘Even if he did do it, it wouldn’t be a crime’: Rudy Giuliani on President Trump” by Isaac Chotiner for The New Yorker

• “Ivanka Trump’s company received preliminary approval from the Chinese government for another five trademarks this month, as her father’s administration pushes ahead on trade negotiations with China.” By CBS News.

• “Nine days after Donald Trump won the presidency, as scores of supporters clamored for meetings with his transition team, the Hollywood producer of ‘The Apprentice,’ Mark Burnett, reached out to one of Trump’s closest advisers to see if he would sit down with a banker who has long held ties to Russia.” By Matthew Mosk, Katherine Faulders, John Santucci for ABC News.

• Russian singer Emin Agalarov, who reportedly arranged Trump Org EVP Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer, canceled his U.S. tour. He made the announcement in front of a backdrop showing a planned Trump development in Moscow. Via Seth Hettena on Twitter.

  

• Wired’s Garrett Graff had an interesting take on Trump’s Moscow project:

  

• “The rise and fall of Donald Trump’s $365 million airline” by Graham Flanagan for Business Insider

• “The Turnberry has been losing an astonishing amount of money, including twenty-three million dollars in 2016,” Adam Davidson wrote for The New Yorker last year. Yesterday, Trump Turnberry shows off where some of that money went.

  

One thing that has nothing to do with Trump’s businesses (I think, tough to tell sometimes!)

“Don’t doubt what you saw with your own eyes” by Laura Wagner for Deadspin

Thanks for reading. If you like what you saw, tell someone—and support this work by paying for a subscription. If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, subscribe for yourself at zacheverson.substack.com. Questions? Read our FAQ/manifesto. Tips or feedback? Contact me, Zach Everson, securely via email at 1100Pennsylvania@protonmail.com or on Signal at 202.804.2744.