The House Oversight and Reform Committee has obtained some of Donald Trump's tax information after years of litigation. Among the documents that were handed over to the committee, however, was information about the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. which was blocks from the White House.
In a letter to the National Archives, the committee details a laundry list of financial benefits from foreign dignitaries revealed using the hotel ledgers.
Among the information turned over to the committee is the coincidental booking of Qatari government officials at the same time as a room was booked under Ivanka and Jared Kushner.
According to the House Committee documents, Qatar ultimately spent $300,000 at the Trump Hotel in early April 2018, when Trump welcomed the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, to the White House. Three months leading up to the meeting, the Qatari government and associated entities were already spending money at the hotel.
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At the time that they were meeting, Trump had enforced a blockade of Qatar, a U.S. ally that has a military base with 11,000 U.S. servicemembers on it.
"Between January and early March 2018, the Sheikh Al Thani Family, the ruling family of Qatar, booked an extended stay at the Trump Hotel, spending at least $282,037. On several occasions during this period, for example, on February 11 and February 12, 2018, a room under the name 'Ivanka & Jared Kushner' was booked on the same nights of the Sheikh Al Thani room block," the House committee document says.
In a timeline put together by JustSecurity.com, two months after Kushner and the Qatari family were booked in the hotel, they were negotiating the deal for the 666 Fifth Avenue property. Aug. 1 through 3, 2018, the Kushners got the bailout money for the property.
Qatar Investment Authority insists it had “absolutely no involvement in the 666 Fifth Avenue development.”
“Both Brookfield and the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign fund of the oil-rich Middle Eastern emirate, said the Investment Authority had no knowledge of the deal. A spokesman for the Investment Authority said the fund ‘has no involvement whatsoever in this deal.’” reported the New York Times, on May 17, 2018.
Brookfield couldn't finance the deal, however, so they turned to Apollo Global Management, a private equity company with ties to Qatar for a $300 million-plus mezzanine loan. They'd previously loaned $184 million to the Kushners in Nov. 2017.
Reuters ultimately reported that the deal in Aug. 2018 forced Qatar “unwittingly” to play a role as an investor in Brookfield, then prompted the country to rethink its investment strategy.