The official who let Trump keep his government hotel deal explains herself

[DonViejo]

By Jonathan O'Connell May 25 at 6:00 AM

Denise Turner Roth’s phone began ringing almost as soon as the presidential election results were in. Everyone was asking: Would her agency pull the plug on Donald Trump’s lease for a Washington property where he had just opened a luxury hotel?

Roth, the top federal official at the agency overseeing the Old Post Office Pavilion, decided to leave office on Inauguration Day without ending Trump’s lease, creating a business relationship between the president and a federal agency that experts consider untenable.

In her first public remarks since leaving office, Roth told The Washington Post this week that she personally thinks that President Trump should divest from the property but that the lease offered no valid reason to force him to.

The former head of the General Services Administration, the federal government’s chief landlord, Roth said her decision was based on a technical reading of Trump’s lease and an interest in ensuring that the GSA maintained its integrity in a heated moment.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-official-who-let-trump-keep-his-government-hotel-deal-explains-herself/2017/05/24/c46052fc-3fe5-11e7-9869-bac8b446820a_story.html

[progressoid]

1. Hmmm...

Ms. Roth’s complaisance was mystifying. She was an outgoing Obama appointee. What did she have to lose by calling to task the Trump administration?

A few weeks after leaving the agency, Ms. Roth was named a senior adviser at WSP/USA, a global engineering and construction management firm whose projects include — surprise — government buildings.

WSP did not make Ms. Roth available for comment and emailed a statement saying she “was brought on board due to her 20 years of public service at the federal and local government levels. … Denise will focus on revitalization issues, smart cities, performance measures and organization development for private and public clients. As with all our professionals, she will not lobby the federal, state or local government on behalf of the firm."

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[dalton99a]

2. "she joined a company that does business with the GSA"

= "she joined a company that does business with the Trump Administration"

So she became a swamp creature