Washington, D.C., is a networking culture, where deals are transacted over cocktails and appetizers at the city’s happy hours. But according to one wine bar, business at many of DC’s establishments has dropped because the city’s power-brokers are trying to earn points with the president and his allies.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this week against President Donald Trump and his namesake DC hotel, Cork Wine Bar claims that they’ve lost business as foreign dignitaries and domestic lawmakers are choosing the Trump International Washington DC when scheduling events, as a way to appeal to the Commander in Chief.
They also believe that Trump is pressuring—either knowingly or unknowingly—those he courts to pick his property over neighboring bars and restaurants.
Cork is located right near the Trump hotel, on 14th St. NW.
“We have events we do here for elected officials, nonprofits, foreign dignitaries, the World Bank, law firms,” the bar’s owner Diane Gross said. “Those folks are now being courted to come and want to go there because they see it as advantageous to them to curry favor with the president.”
The Trump family has called the suit “a wild publicity stunt completely lacking in legal merit.”
But Gross’s lawsuit isn’t just about lost profits.
There are several cases challenging Trump and the conflicts of interest that may exist between his presidential work and his wheeler-dealer businessman persona. The President has not divested himself of interests in the Trump Corporation, but merely structured his financial holdings to be at arm’s length during his tenure, while his two sons run the corporation itself.
Most of those cases, however, have been brought by non-profits or government watchdog entities that haven’t been personally harmed by Trump and so don’t have standing to sue the hotel or the man.
Cork Wine Bar says that it’s suffered financial harm, and DC attorneys and local law professors are lining up behind the tiny establishment, taking Cork’s case pro bono, as a way of finally challenging the President on his business interests, perhaps even forcing Trump to divest or create a completely blind trust while in office.
The legal team says that the DC Post Office lease specifies that Trump can’t take a benefit from his DC hotel. But instead of dumping the hotel, “defendant Donald J. Trump, his family, and various White House staff and/or advisors have continued to promote the Hotel to maximize its exposure and income-producing potential.”
Cork says that the President, then, “is taking business away from legitimate businesses and that is not fair,” according to one law professor listed on the case. And they aren’t looking for monetary damages; Cork and its team want the court to “level the playing field” through an unspecified remedy.
Cork and its team also say they’d welcome other restaurants joining the suit, making it a sort-of class action against the President.
