WASHINGTON — Hours before the deadline Friday, the Trust for the National Mall mostly evaded questions in response to a letter from Democratic senators concerned about President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project.
Nor did the trust, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., provide the documentation that the lawmakers had requested.
NBC News previously reported that the trust is stewarding the millions of dollars in private donations paying for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom, though in the past it has focused on smaller, nonpartisan projects like preserving Washington, D.C.’s cherry blossom trees and renovating horse stables on the National Mall.
The Democratic lawmakers had expressed deep skepticism about the organization’s role as a conduit for the private donations bankrolling the project.
In her reply, trust President Catherine Townsend laid out previously reported information about the group’s role in funneling donations to the Trump administration for the ballroom addition — which polling shows most people oppose.
The letter gave the trust until Friday to respond. The senators also sent the letter to the National Park Service, an arm of the Trump administration. The park service press office did not respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-signed the letter, said that Townsend’s written response was “insultingly unsatisfying.”
“It’s an insult to our intelligence and to their integrity,” Blumenthal said in an interview Friday. “It ducks and dodges all the questions that we’ve asked and threatens to immerse this respected institution in the quicksand of Trump’s ethical and legal boondoggle.”
Blumenthal added that the trust’s letter won’t suffice and the senators will “press for answers” in the days ahead.
“We certainly will not accept this evasion of accountability that facilitates special interest access,” he said.
Townsend said in the trust’s response, obtained by NBC News, that it “is not soliciting donations for the Ballroom and has no role in the planning, design, or construction of the new Ballroom.”
No documentation provided
The response comes after five Democratic senators penned a letter to the trust in October, arguing that the ballroom raised “questions about whether the Trust’s philanthropic structure is being abused to facilitate special-interest access to the Trump Administration and influence peddling by giant corporations.”
The letter, signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Blumenthal posed more than a dozen questions about the trust’s operations.
The lawmakers asked for documentation laying out any agreement between the trust and the Trump administration regarding the ballroom, details about donations to the project and any communication among the trust, White House and corporate donors over fundraising activities and project proposals.
The trust did not provide the material. Rather, in its seven-paragraph reply, the trust said that “donor names and identifying information are not subject to public disclosure,” adding that “we strictly adhere to those confidentiality requirements to protect our donors’ privacy.”
The White House has previously said that donors could remain anonymous, meaning the identity of all those underwriting the president’s pet project may never be known.
Major companies have contributed to the project, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Comcast Corp., the parent company of NBCUniversal.
The Trust for the National Mall is a philanthropic partner of the National Park Service, providing private funds and volunteers for public projects. A genteel group that also marshals volunteers to paint park benches on the Mall, the trust has never before involved itself in a project as expensive and polarizing as the ballroom.
Its role in the ballroom project threatens to erode the goodwill and bipartisan support it has largely enjoyed since it was founded in 2007 as a vehicle to spruce up the grassy expanse between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.
Apart from demolishing the East Wing, workers have also torn up The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, which used to sit south of the East Colonnade, to make way for the ballroom, according to a White House official.
The trust did not respond to a question from the lawmakers about whether it knew in advance that the East Wing would be flattened to accommodate the ballroom. Trump had once said that the ballroom wouldn’t touch the White House.
“Is the demolition consistent with the Trust’s mission to ‘preserve the National Mall as a symbol of our nation’s ideals and civic purpose’?” the letter from the lawmakers asked. “Was this demolition included in plans for the project that were approved by the Trust?”
Townsend did not engage with the question, saying that “the Trust for the National Mall’s mission is to service the priorities of the NPS [the National Park Service].”
She said that additional questions about the ballroom project “should be directed to the National Park Service and/or the White House.”
Reached for comment on the trust’s response, Warren said, “If the Trust for the National Mall has become a tool for favor-seeking between billionaires and the President of the United States, the American people deserve to know.”
“It’s my job as a United States Senator to uncover possible corruption and get answers for Americans,” she said in a statement. “I’ll keep pushing to find out if the Trust is facilitating wink-and-nod arrangements between Trump and his billionaire ballroom donors — and what these donors are getting in return.”
A recent poll shows the public doesn’t share Trump’s enthusiasm for the ballroom, which will accommodate up to 1,000 people. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in the last week of October showed that only 28% of adults supported the East Wing demolition and ballroom plan, compared to 56% who were opposed.
Potential toxicity?
On Friday, the Society of Architectural Historians hosted an online seminar in which historians and architects said that the Trump White House bypassed the meticulous planning and review that a project of this magnitude should undergo.
The panelists also questioned whether workers took precautions to prevent the release of asbestos and other toxins when they tore down the East Wing, built in the early 20th century.
“It’s been mentioned to me many times by different people whether abatement was done and how quickly this has happened,” said Jean Carroon, principal emerita of Goody Clancy Architects. “We can run down the whole list of toxicity that might be in that building and added to over time from PCBs, to lead paint to asbestos. That’s a significant part of any renovation or demolition.”
A White House official told NBC News that “any hazardous material abatement was done in September.”
“A very extensive abatement and remediation assessment was followed, complying with all applicable federal standards,” the official added.
Other panelists said that by forging ahead with the project without outside, independent review, the Trump administration failed to answer the most basic question: Is a ballroom even needed?
Bryan Clark Green, a former member of the National Capital Planning Commission, said “the necessity of a ballroom has never been discussed.”
One alternative would have been to forgo a ballroom and hold large White House dinners and receptions at the Mellon Auditorium nearby, said Green, whom the Trump administration removed from the planning commission earlier in the year.
“For the rare occasions when these very large events do take place, was it absolutely necessary to destroy this fabric irrevocably for a building that will be used, at best, a very small number of times?” he said.
