Supreme Court dismisses House Democrats' dispute over Trump hotel documents

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a dispute over whether individual Democratic members of Congress can pursue a lawsuit seeking government documents related to the former Trump International Hotel in Washington.

The move came after the Democratic lawmakers voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit, which the Biden administration was defending.

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 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. Trump’s company sold the lease last year and the hotel is now operating as a Waldorf Astoria.

When Trump won the 2016 election, 17 Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., sought access to documents relating to the agreement, questioning whether Trump had a conflict of interest.

The 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.

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A federal judge threw out the 2017 lawsuit filed by the lawmakers, saying they did not have legal standing.

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In a 2020 ruling issued just before Trump left office, the U.S. 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.

As part of its brief unsigned decision on Monday, the Supreme Court threw out that decision.