On Anniversary of East Wing Demolition, Public Citizen Sues for Information on the Management of Private Donations for Trump’s Ballroom
WASHINGTON D.C. — Today marks one year since President Trump’s shocking demolition of the historic White House East Wing. Today, Public Citizen sued the National Park Service and Department of Interior for failing to disclose information about the collection and management of a reported $330 million in donations from corporations and billionaires to fund the White House ballroom project.
In May, Public Citizen submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Park Service seeking communications concerning the nonprofit Trust for the National Mall’s acceptance and management of donations for the ballroom project. According to an agreement obtained by Public Citizen after Public Citizen sued for its disclosure, the Trust and Park Service were supposed to communicate about whether to accept certain donations to the ballroom and, among other things, determine whether the donors were foreign nationals or foreign entities, have a recent public history of criminal or civil violations, or whether accepting the donations would create a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict. The deadline for the National Park Service to respond to the FOIA request has passed, but the agency has not responded to the request.
“We are following the ballroom money wherever it leads,” said Jon Golinger, Democracy Advocate at Public Citizen. “The White House is the People’s House and the American people have the right to these documents so they can see how the hundreds of millions funding the ballroom have been handled and whether every donor has been properly vetted.”
Read more about the lawsuit here.