Democrats hold SHADOW HEARING on Trump's corruption

[1:13] Good afternoon, everyone. [1:15] Welcome to our witnesses. [1:19] Thank you for being here. [1:21] To Representative Garcia, chairman of the, or ranking [1:24] member of the House Oversight Committee, [1:28] and to my wonderful colleague, Senator Whitehouse, [1:31] who has been instrumental in the topic that brings us here [1:36] today. [1:37] We're here for another important hearing and investigation [1:42] into the Trump administration's brazen, unprecedented [1:46] corruption and disregard for the American people. [1:50] As we all know, Americans are sling to make ends meet. [1:54] And most everything else, Donald Trump [1:56] has worked on a series of 18 vanity projects [2:00] costing more than a billion dollars. [2:02] Corruption has consequences. [2:04] Corruption has costs. [2:06] And the impacts in the situation of iconic national [2:09] America at this 20th anniversary are great. [2:13] Donald Trump's forces has long known, [2:16] but over the past year, we ought to be shocked at how far [2:21] he has shown he's willing to go. [2:23] And let me just quick outline for you [2:25] how bills have ballooned and quality is creating [2:31] nation as it was all. [2:34] It's ballooned us from $200 million to $490 million [2:38] in a nobid contract since Clark construction, [2:42] which itself is a disaster, now empty and fenced off [2:46] from the public, has gone too older than $17 million. [2:51] But the work has to be redone. [3:46] So likely that cost will be doubled. [3:52] It was supposed to cost $3.3 million, [3:56] is now again with Clark construction at a cost of $17 million. [4:04] And the reflecting pool was a no source, single source, [4:09] noncompetitive, no bid contract with Greenwater Services, [4:19] which is owned by a Trump donor. [4:22] In fact, that donor has given to Trump's campaign [4:26] and other projects more than half a million dollars. [4:33] Those are just some of the projects we see underway. [4:41] I want to go back to last October, when President Trump [4:44] announced on TrueSocial that he was remodeling the Lincoln [4:48] bedroom, and most particularly the Lincoln bathroom, [4:53] of the White House in, quote, polished, [4:55] statutory marble. [4:59] Of course, he didn't tell us how much the renovation [5:01] was going to cost, but estimates suggest [5:04] that it has put burdens on taxpayers of about $1.6 million. [5:12] And that was just the beginning. [5:14] In the months since, he's treated the entire capital [5:17] as his personal Versailles, a palace on the Potomac. [5:21] He's destroyed a full wing of the White House, [5:24] repainted the reflecting pool, shuttered the Kennedy Center [5:27] name, and he's planning to build a massive arc [5:33] to glorify himself. [5:36] Meanwhile, he's consistently refused to do anything [5:38] to help the American people with the struggles they face, [5:42] whether it be extending the ACA subsidies, providing funding [5:46] for SNAP, or simply signing a housing bill that passed Congress [5:50] with overwhelming support. [5:55] These actions aren't the hallmark of a president. [6:00] They are more like hallmarks of an authoritarian dictator who's [6:05] only concerned about himself and not the people he was elected [6:09] to serve. [6:11] And the people profiting are Trump cronies [6:16] who are paid inflated sums from taxpayer dollars [6:20] through shady no-bid contracts for work they are not qualified [6:26] to do. [6:28] When the American people aren't overpaying Trump [6:32] or his friends directly, major companies [6:34] are getting rich with contracts awarded or lawsuits [6:37] dropped after they make donations in untold millions. [6:45] This story of corruption has human costs as well. [6:50] President Trump wants to be king. [6:51] He doesn't care who gets hurt or lost along the way. [6:53] Arlington National Cemetery is hallowed ground. [6:57] It's hallowed ground for all Americans, not just veterans. [7:01] It's a solemn resting place with a view overlooking the Lincoln [7:06] Memorial in recognition of what service men and women give [7:11] or have given to our country. [7:13] President Trump wants to desecrate Arlington [7:17] by building a massive arc in tribute to himself, which [7:23] will cast an imposing shadow over that sacred place. [7:28] The American people have lost a bipartisan cultural touchstone. [7:35] And artists across the country have lost a place that should [7:40] be recognized for their achievement without regard [7:43] to political affiliation. [7:45] The East Wing of the White House stood for over a century, [7:48] a place where ordinary Americans entered to tour the house built [7:53] for presidents, the people's house, our house, [7:57] to reside as custodians of our shared history. [8:00] They're not the owners. [8:02] They lived there for a while. [8:04] They're temporary occupants. [8:05] But President Trump knocked it down as though he were the owner [8:10] to construct a massive, ornate ballroom that we now hear the American people are [8:16] supposed to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to construct. [8:20] He promised it was going to be funded all privately. [8:24] Indeed, tens of millions were raised from companies that have business [8:29] before the government. [8:32] Of those donors, more than half have received new contracts [8:37] or expanded the ones they have now. [8:40] Pay to play is the MO here. [8:48] These actions are a microcosm of how the president views our whole country. [8:53] He expects all of us to glorify him at every failing act [9:01] and pay money to his friends and family whenever they ask, [9:04] and even while everyday Americans struggle to meet the needs of life. [9:11] That's not the America our founders fought for 250 years ago. [9:16] It's the America they sought to prevent through the Emoluments Clause, [9:21] which forbids benefits going to the president. [9:24] And it's not the America we want to live in today. [9:29] I turn to Representative Garcia for his remarks. [9:33] Well, thank you as always, Senator Blumenthal, [9:35] and for your leadership in these joint hearings, [9:39] which have all been really instructive. [9:41] And today is so important. [9:43] And I know that the Senate and certainly us in the House [9:46] care deeply about our history, America's monuments, [9:50] and the future where we go from here. [9:52] I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. [9:54] It's a really important hearing that we're having. [9:56] And we're here today to call out the disgusting vanity, [10:00] incompetence, and corruption of President Donald Trump. [10:05] The American people are struggling. [10:07] The rent is too damn high. [10:09] Grocery prices are up. [10:10] Gas prices are up. [10:12] Every American family is paying the costs [10:14] of Trump's tariffs and economy. [10:16] But the president doesn't care about working families. [10:20] He claims affordability is a hoax. [10:23] His only priority is himself and his family. [10:26] And he is obsessed with weaponizing his office for profit, [10:31] collecting over $2 billion in his first year in office alone. [10:36] And his family is looting billions more [10:40] from the American taxpayer. [10:41] And today we're going to talk about his obsession [10:45] with rebuilding D.C. as a monument to his own ego. [10:50] Now, there is currently a $14 million renovation happening [10:54] that's plagued by algae and a bottom that's chipping away [10:58] and falling apart at the reflecting pool. [11:01] This pool has been drained twice, [11:03] just in three months, for repairs. [11:07] Built so incompetently that they're trying to put [11:09] an innocent man to jail to cover up their shoddy work, [11:13] with contracts going to Donald Trump friends and donors. [11:18] What a disgrace and completely shameful. [11:22] And then, of course, there's the East Wing and the White House. [11:26] Demolished with barely any public notice or public process. [11:30] To make way for what? [11:32] A ballroom that'll cost up to $1 billion, [11:35] funded by taxpayers and shady corporate donations, [11:39] so that Donald Trump and his family can host balls [11:43] and dinners and galas for himself, I'm sure, [11:47] and for his friends and rich donors. [11:50] What a shameful moment for our country [11:53] and just disturbing to see what he's doing at the White House. [11:57] And we can't forget about the Kennedy Center. [12:00] He not only tried to take over the board, [12:02] of course, installing himself as chairman, [12:05] but he placed his name on the building, [12:09] turning a cultural institution, a memorial, [12:12] to a great man, a president, [12:14] into some sort of warped vanity project to himself. [12:18] Thank goodness for the courage of some and the courts [12:22] in stopping these horrific and illegal and corrupt action. [12:27] And now, of course, he's also pushing this triumphal arch [12:31] between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. [12:35] This arch, of course, [12:37] when reporters were asked who the arch was for, [12:40] Trump said, quote, [12:41] me, this is a sad, pathetic, lonely man [12:49] who's trying to turn America's monuments [12:52] into monuments for himself. [12:55] And in the process, he's destroying institutions [12:58] and properties that belong not to him and his family, [13:01] but to the American people. [13:02] He's dishonoring our history. [13:04] He's dishonoring our veterans. [13:06] He's dishonoring a former great president. [13:10] And he's dishonoring the American people. [13:12] And of course, what's crazy is every single project [13:16] is marked by corruption and actually incompetence. [13:19] No bid contracts, as we know, [13:23] unqualified companies, including campaign donors, [13:26] and blatant violations of a law halted by the courts. [13:31] Donald Trump claims to be the biggest, [13:33] most successful builder of all time, [13:36] but he can't even refurbish a pool. [13:39] Trump also likes to talk about vandals in DC [13:47] and crime in DC [13:49] and all the vandalism that he sees wherever he goes. [13:52] Well, the biggest vandal in Washington, DC [13:55] is the president of the United States. [14:01] He's corrupt. [14:03] He's incompetent. [14:04] He's ripping off the taxpayer. [14:06] He's obsessed with himself and only himself. [14:09] And he's willing to destroy important American institutions [14:12] for his own grievances [14:14] and his own vanity and narcissism. [14:17] He literally destroyed the East Wing. [14:19] He doesn't care about real priorities [14:21] of the American public. [14:22] Now, we are investigating all of this. [14:25] And I thank our Senate partners [14:27] in their incredible work [14:29] and investigations on these issues. [14:31] Now, we want the contracts. [14:34] We want the documents, the communications, [14:37] the payments, the paper trails. [14:39] And we're going to find out [14:40] who is profiting from these projects [14:43] and find all the grift and the waste. [14:46] And of course, what Donald Trump [14:48] and the administration should know [14:50] is that we're just getting started. [14:53] And with that, Senator, I yield back. [14:55] Thank you. [14:55] Thanks, Representative Garcia. [14:57] And thank you for your partnership in this effort. [15:00] And we're going to be demanding the facts. [15:02] We're going to want the evidence and documents. [15:04] And we'll stop at nothing to get them. [15:07] And together, we're going to make sure [15:10] that we uncover this corruption because it has costs. [15:13] Corruption has costs and consequences for everyday Americans. [15:18] And nobody knows better the importance [15:20] of getting the facts than my good friend, [15:22] Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. [15:24] I want to thank him for his leadership [15:26] in battling the administration's grift and corruption. [15:29] Particularly, I want to recognize the tremendous work [15:33] he did just last week in bringing to light [15:34] the new whistleblower allegations [15:37] that the administration is once again performing shoddy work, [15:40] cutting corners, and issuing no-bid contracts [15:43] for millions of dollars at the Kennedy Center. [15:46] Thank you for being here, Senator Whitehouse. [15:49] Thank you, ranking members Blumenthal and Garcia, [15:52] for convening us here today to discuss monumental waste. [15:58] If you want to see monumental waste, [16:00] look no further than the Kennedy Center. [16:03] Beginning last summer, whistleblowers came to me [16:05] with documents showing that after President Trump [16:08] had declared himself chairman, his hand-picked leadership team [16:12] let FIFA occupy the entire campus for three weeks [16:15] for a grand total of zero dollars, zero. [16:19] That gift cost the center over $5 million in lost revenue, [16:24] but it let the president hang a made-up FIFA Peace Prize [16:28] around his neck. [16:30] Invoices and receipts also showed a pattern [16:33] of unprecedented spending on staff meals, [16:36] jobs going to Trump World family and friends [16:38] with no qualifications, and long-term stays [16:41] at the Ritzy Watergate Hotel for their new hires. [16:46] So as ranking member of the Environment Public Works Committee [16:48] and ex-officio member of the center's board, [16:51] I launched an investigation into the management [16:54] of the Kennedy Center's finances. [16:56] Since last November, more whistleblowers have come forward [16:59] with documents that demonstrate even more corruption [17:02] in self-dealing, from multiple no-bid contracts going [17:05] to preferred contractors, to rushed jobs that need to be redone, [17:10] to management telling staff to do whatever it takes [17:13] and not to worry about the repercussions [17:15] because we'll deal with the lawsuits later. [17:19] And to what end? [17:21] All this waste occurred in the service [17:22] of gratifying the president's monumental ego. [17:26] That meant delivering for him two dates, December 5th, [17:29] when he'd take to the stage to accept his phony baloney peace [17:33] surprise, and December 7th, when he'd take the stage again [17:37] as the self-appointed host of the Kennedy Center Honors. [17:41] The columns rusting through fresh paint, [17:44] the reflecting pool that may now have to be rebuilt, [17:47] Trump's name appearing on the building less than 12 hours [17:50] after an illegal board vote, none of this is an accident. [17:54] Everything was rushed to make sure the monuments looked [17:58] the way the president wanted. [18:01] And now Americans are left to foot the bill [18:03] for the shoddy work itself and for the still needed repairs [18:07] never properly done. [18:10] My fellow ex officio member, Representative Joyce Beatty, [18:13] is here. [18:14] She filed the lawsuit that forced President Trump's name [18:28] off of President Kennedy's memorial, [18:32] restored the statutory voting rights of ex officio members, [18:36] and halted a complete closure of the entire center [18:42] that looked more like a cover-up for their inability [18:45] to run the place. [18:47] So my work on the Kennedy Center continues, [18:49] and I encourage all those with information [18:51] to keep coming forward. [18:52] My staff remains ready to meet with anyone in confidence [18:56] and at your convenience. [18:58] I'll also recognize that Norm Eisen, [19:01] who was Joyce Beatty's lawyer in that matter, is here as well. [19:04] So you guys are backstopped in that. [19:12] As a ranking member of EPW with jurisdiction [19:15] over public buildings, I'd be remiss not to mention other victims [19:18] to the Trump cavalcade of corruption. [19:21] You know the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool story, [19:23] the peeling paint, the made-up claims of vandalism, [19:27] the gash that grew with every retelling. [19:30] What you may not know, that $1.8 million contract ballooned [19:34] to a $14 million no-bid giveaway to Trump's preferred contractors, [19:40] including a Palm Beach neighbor who has twice pled guilty [19:45] to federal bribery and campaign finance violations. [19:49] Same at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. [19:51] Last October, I wrote to President Trump [19:53] regarding his illegal demolition of the East Wing [19:56] for his vanity ballroom. [19:58] First promised at $200 million in private donations, [20:01] its cost has now more than tripled, [20:04] including a defeated attempt to fleece taxpayers [20:07] out of a billion dollars. [20:09] Ranking member Garcia and I led an amicus brief, [20:12] urging the court to stop construction [20:15] of the billion-dollar ballroom without congressional approval. [20:19] And now, it turns out, there's more. [20:21] The Washington Post has since reported [20:23] that the White House awarded a $500 million no-bid contract [20:27] routed through the executive residence. [20:30] Conveniently, the place exempt from federal rules [20:33] requiring competitive bidding. [20:36] The Trump motto, don't like the rules, break them. [20:40] Manufactured vandalism, bulldoze buildings, no-bid contracts. [20:44] None of this is happening in isolation, [20:46] and none of it's really about paint and plaster. [20:49] It's a story of cronyism, corruption, and contempt for anyone [20:54] who engages in oversight. [20:56] It's a deliberate hollowing out of American institutions [20:59] that are supposed to outlast any one man [21:02] until there's nothing left of them but the name on the door. [21:05] Or, if you don't like that name, just a tarp to cover it up. [21:10] Thank you very much to both of our co-chairs. [21:13] Thank you so much, Senator Whitehouse. [21:20] Senator Whitehouse has already partially introduced the witnesses, [21:24] but I'm going to do a more formal job. [21:27] And I want to tell the witnesses and everybody here [21:32] that Senator Whitehouse and I spent a lot of time [21:35] in this hearing room. [21:37] Rarely is it as packed as it is today when we have a formal hearing. [21:49] So I want to thank everybody who is here, but also just [21:53] to tell the witnesses, you may feel [21:56] that this hearing is of lesser value [21:59] because we're sitting down here instead of on the dais. [22:04] We should be on the dais. [22:06] This hearing should be bipartisan. [22:08] Republicans should be doing what we're doing now, [22:12] investigating this corruption and cronyism. [22:15] But make no mistake that America is watching. [22:18] In fact, our investigative hearings have been watched [22:23] on livestream by many multiples of the numbers of people [22:28] who ordinarily watch the hearings held in this hearing room. [22:34] So thank you to everybody who is watching remotely today. [22:39] We're very honored to be joined today by Congresswoman Joyce Beattie, [22:44] who has represented the 3rd District of Ohio since 2013. [22:49] She's here today to discuss her role as an ex-officio member [22:53] of the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees and her successful efforts [22:58] to fight the Trump administration's attempts to rename the Kennedy Center. [23:03] Ben Foltz is a world-renowned songwriter and musician [23:07] who spent eight years as artistic advisor [23:12] to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. [23:16] He stepped down from that role in February 2025 after President Trump fired many members [23:22] of the Kennedy Center's formerly bipartisan board and had himself elected chairman. [23:30] Jimmy Shaughnessy is a combat veteran whose great-grandparents served in both World Wars. [23:40] They are buried in Arlington. [23:42] He is here to share his family's story and how Trump's proposed art would honor or dishonor [23:51] his great-grandparents and so many other brave veterans who were buried at Arlington. [23:56] John Gullinger is a democracy advocate of public citizen, [24:00] where he has led groundbreaking research uncovering the corruption and grip epidemic [24:05] in Donald Trump's ballroom pay-to-play. [24:09] Ambassador Norm Eisen, retired ambassador, is the co-founder and board member [24:16] of Democracy Defenders Action and co-founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. [24:23] He has combated the Trump administration's efforts to establish a $1.776 billion slush fund, [24:40] I call it a thug fund, for the benefit of the January 6th insurrectionists. [24:47] He served as counsel to remove Trump's name from the Kennedy Center. [24:51] He represented Olympian David Hearn in his criminal case regarding the reflecting pool, [24:58] and his testimony today will focus on anti-corruption efforts. [25:04] So with that, Congressman Beattie, the flag is, the floor is yours. [25:13] Thank you, ranking members, Senator Richard Blumenthal and Congressman Robert Garcia [25:21] and other members of this distinct hearing, distinguished hearing. [25:26] I'd also be remiss if I did not thank my colleague and ex-official board member, [25:31] Sheldon Whitehouse, for his comments. [25:35] Today's hearing, monumental waste on how Donald Trump is spending taxpayers' dollars [25:41] on national landmarks like the Kennedy Center. [25:44] My testimony will focus on fighting back against Trump's unlawful renaming of the John F. Kennedy Center [25:52] for the Performing Arts, the only living memorial for President Kennedy. [25:58] It's about whether powerful people can rewrite history, seize public institutions, and silence dissent. [26:07] The unlawful renaming of the Kennedy Center is another example of Trump's disregard of the rule of law [26:14] and our Constitution. [26:16] I became the face of this fight because someone had to stand up. [26:22] At the end of the day, it wasn't about fighting for myself. [26:26] I was fighting for the rule of law and for an institution that belongs to the American people. [26:32] Trump began his takeover of the Kennedy Center by handpicking his sycophants [26:38] to the Board of Trustees to rubber stamp his plans. [26:42] By law, certain members of Congress serve as ex-official members of the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees, [26:49] like myself. [26:50] Trump then illegally stripped ex-official members of their rights to vote in board meetings. [26:58] During the December 18, 2025 virtual meeting, I was muted, silencing me when the vote occurred [27:07] to change the name. [27:09] On December 22, 2025, I filed the lawsuit, Beatty v. Trump, in federal court to remind the president [27:18] that there are consequences for unlawful actions and that one cannot simply rewrite federal law. [27:30] From December 2025 to March 2026, a series of filings and hearings occurred. [27:38] I appeared before the fourth Federal District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper on March 12, [27:44] might add that was my birthday, 2026. [27:48] On May 30, 2026, Judge Cooper ruled that the Kennedy Center trustees acted unlawfully when [27:55] they renamed the institution to include Donald Trump's name. [27:59] Further, the court reaffirmed separation of powers by stating that only Congress [28:05] has the authority to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. [28:09] Judge Cooper also ordered every reference to Trump's name to be removed, including the website, [28:16] branding, transportation, and signage on the front of the building. [28:20] On June 12, 2026, the day the sign was ordered to come down, I stood with hundreds of people [28:27] at the Kennedy Center for approximately 11 hours as scaffolding and a tarp were erected. [28:34] At 4 a.m. on Saturday, June 13, I witnessed the name had been removed. [28:40] In addition to the name being removed, Judge Cooper also blocked Trump's plan [28:46] two-year shutdown of the Kennedy Center. Justice prevailed. No longer silence, [28:51] no longer prevented from attending and voting in board meetings, the name had come down. [28:56] The Kennedy Center is the home to the National Symphony Orchestra and thousands of artists, [29:02] performers, students, advisors, and families like many here today, except especially Mr. Ben Foles. [29:10] Once it became apparent that the Trump and the board's unlawful actions led artists to canceling [29:16] and refusing to play the Kennedy Center, it appeared that Trump decided that his own personal ego [29:23] outweighed the thousands of artists and the workers who rely on the Kennedy Center for their livelihood. [29:29] The court's most recent ruling made clear that the Trump administration must expand, [29:34] must explain two things by July 31st, why the Kennedy Center remains covered by a massive tarp, [29:41] and what is he covering up, and what concrete plans they have to keep the building open. [29:47] I'd like to convey my appreciation to the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Permanent [29:53] Subcommittee on Investigations for holding this hearing today. In these difficult times, [29:58] American people deserve better than a president who is more focused on slapping his name on buildings [30:06] than helping people lower the cost of groceries. Yes, I would have preferred to be here talking about [30:13] affordability and helping working families rather than discussing Trump's vanity projects [30:19] and petty acts of defiance. Thank you, and I yield back. [30:23] Thank you so much, Congresswoman Beattie, and thank you for your great work. I want to just say, [30:39] ordinarily, we would have a presiding officer sternly gaveling down the applause, [30:51] but actually there's something very refreshing and inspiring about your approval, and thank you, [31:01] Congresswoman Beattie for that excellent testimony. Mr. Folds, Mr. Folds, the floor is yours. [31:11] Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committees. [31:15] Thank you for the invitation to speak for you today. My name is Ben Folds, and I've been a recording [31:21] artist and a touring artist for 30 years, and half my career has been focused on the orchestra. In 2017, [31:27] I was appointed the first artistic advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra, NSO, at the Kennedy [31:34] Center here in Washington, D.C., where my role was essentially curatorial. We sold out shows for eight [31:40] years straight without compromising the orchestra's integrity. Contemporary artists like Sara Bareilles, [31:45] John Batiste, Regina Spector, as well as country artist Jamie Johnson all played their first orchestra [31:51] shows with us and then carried those scores to perform with other orchestras around the country, [31:57] because it's a common challenge for orchestras across the U.S. to bring in younger audiences, [32:03] and their survival depends on this, so we saw an opportunity there. This is one of the many things [32:07] that the Kennedy Center and the NSO can lead as a mission-based federal arts institution, [32:13] not a run-of-the-mill profit institution. Just as our efforts were beginning to make a difference [32:19] across the country in February 2025, the Trump administration staged a brutal board takeover. For the [32:27] first time in history, a president took control of the Kennedy Center's programming and messaging. [32:32] The firewall between politics and the Center's non-profit mission was eliminated. The result was [32:38] a hyper-politicized environment. Gone was the apolitical sanctuary the Kennedy Center always [32:44] provided. During the first Trump administration when I was appointed, I never heard politics [32:50] discussed in any meetings or gatherings at the Center. Everyone involved, including the Trump board, [32:55] knew we were there to create, educate, and showcase art for all Americans, not to further a political [33:01] agenda. I think most of us understand that when you politicize art, you got propaganda. With the new [33:08] partisan toxic environment under the current administration, I could not trust that artists [33:13] I booked at the Kennedy Center would be safe from retribution if they said or sung something that might [33:20] displease the president or his political lackeys who now controlled the center. I could not perform my job [33:27] or the mission I was brought on to do, and for this reason, with great sadness, I had no choice but to resign. [33:33] These days, if an artist agrees to perform at the Kennedy Center, they risk being seen as explicitly [33:39] endorsing the Trump administration and all of its policies. Declining an invitation to perform at the [33:44] Kennedy Center will have an equal and opposite political effect. There may be certain artists who will [33:49] thrive in this environment, comedians come to mind, but most want nothing to do with it, and will choose to [33:55] create and perform their art elsewhere, and they are, and audiences are following. If you take the case of [34:03] DC-based artist Yasmin Williams, who decided even after the takeover to honor a prior offer to perform at [34:10] the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, exercising her First Amendment rights, Yasmin had publicly taken issue with the [34:18] then-center's Trump loyal executive director, and during her performance, she was aggressively [34:23] interrupted and heckled, prompting the center's workers union to call for an investigation into [34:29] credible allegations that the then-executive director incited and even paid these hecklers to harass her. [34:37] So, Yasmin had to endure heckling from extremists on the right, while also getting grief from the left for [34:44] even showing up to perform treated as she was a scab crossing a picket line. You have to marvel at [34:51] anyone who would believe they could run the business of the Kennedy Center with no prior arts [34:56] administration experience at all. And we can see the result has been dwindling audiences, the exit of [35:03] the Washington National Opera, the dismantling of the national public education outreach programs, [35:09] and the demoralization of our national symphony orchestra. Many of the NSO privately believe that their jobs are [35:15] in danger. So the takeover hobbled the Kennedy Center, broke its once proven successful business model, [35:21] and disrespected its original core mission. The unlawful addition of the president's name to the [35:27] front of the building sent the Kennedy Center into further spiral. And while his name has been removed, [35:34] thank you, the center's future and the future of the NSO is still uncertain. Our beloved institution needs [35:42] to be resuscitated. We need a vibrant Kennedy Center whose leadership once again understands how to run [35:48] its business, who will keep politics checked at the doors, who will ensure that only the most qualified [35:52] arts administrators are in charge. Because we can see the damage that is caused when arts are run by [35:58] politicians rather than people. I greatly appreciate you hearing me out. I can only hope your concerns can [36:03] find their ways to the hearts and minds of your colleagues on the other side of the aisle who seem absent [36:10] today. I used to work with them on various issues, bringing people into the arts, and they're absent [36:17] now. Here's hoping that we can get that spirit back. I'd like to yield back myself. Thank you. [36:30] Thank you very much, Mr. Foltz, and for all your work. I now recognize Mr. Shaughnessy. [36:36] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate your efforts in keeping this issue in the public eye. [36:45] I speak to you today as a private citizen, a Marine Corps combat veteran, [36:49] son of a veteran, and grandson of generations of combat veterans spanning nearly 200 years. [36:53] Buried in Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery, my great-grandfather, my great-grandmother. [37:00] He, a combat veteran who led the charge in horseback against Pancho Villa, and would go on to serve in both [37:06] World Wars. She, a combat nurse who tended to wounded young men during World War II. They didn't question [37:12] whether they should serve, only how long they would be permitted to. As a young Marine, I was impressed [37:17] by their example. Their commitment to service and country became values I carried through my [37:21] enlistment and combat tour, a tour in which I lost friends before I could learn their full names. [37:26] Now, potentially, a gigantic arch will cast a shadow on my resting family, friends, and leathernecks, [37:32] as vanity is rewarded with a momentous symbol of selfishness. A 250-foot arch is a profound [37:38] disruption and insult at the entrance to sacred ground. The space at the gates of Arlington Cemetery exists [37:43] as a threshold, a transitory passage between service and burial. To preserve that integrity, [37:49] it must remain open and unobstructed. The origin of this arch was not born from conversations and [37:54] contemplation with military members, veterans, their families, or the entities that serve these [37:59] populations. It was not a discussion with the American people, not a discussion for the American [38:04] people, but rather an attempt to gain the attention of one man. Service members and their families [38:09] navigate many transitions throughout a military career and beyond. The transition out of the military is [38:13] among the most dangerous periods a service member will face. That final transition from service to [38:19] eternal rest, it is not theirs to manage. It is ours. It falls to us, the living, to receive our wounded [38:27] and our dead with the highest esteem and care. An arch is not what they need. Who is this arch for? [38:35] Is it for me? The president has already answered that question, and yes, it is for him. This arch would [38:41] obstruct the sight line of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a symbol of unity and reconciliation, [38:45] connecting those divided by war and grief. Rather than honoring that unity, it deepens a wound that [38:50] has not fully healed. Hasty construction is no path to a monument worthy of this nation. [38:56] Previous memorials were shaped by extensive public input and rigorous agency review, ensuring that the [39:00] final design reflected our shared values. This proposal has had neither. Others have raised the serious [39:08] safety hazards of placing a monument in a roundabout at a high traffic intersection, consistent with this [39:13] administration's pattern of placing pedestrians in harm's way. Every view from our contemplated [39:18] landscape will be dominated by an overt symbol of hasty, selfish celebration. Approaching drivers [39:23] will have their view of Arlington obstructed as they gawk at the mammoth sterling white blocks of [39:27] stamped facade. Once atop the observation deck, there are two choices. Gawk with an amusement-like [39:34] stare at the cotton-bright gravestones diligently plotted across the hillside, or turn your back on our fallen [39:40] comrades, and take in the stunning views. The administration has chosen to ignore the established [39:45] protocol and precedent for this project, which is allowing Congress to write into law the authorization [39:51] for construction of a memorial structure, instead of rubber stamping every aspect of this project, [39:56] contradicting the very purpose of pre-established criteria meant to determine a structure's path. [40:00] The precedent cited for this project is beyond flawed and outdated. 100 years old and two pillars [40:07] apart is hardly sturdy footing for an arch. This project does not honor any living or deceased [40:12] patriot of ours. Funding has been stripped from the Veterans Affairs, the National Park Service, [40:18] and the Department of Interior, degrading the capacity of these very agencies that provide direct [40:22] services to veterans and their families. If we are to truly support the men and women who serve in [40:27] uniform direct this money to those agencies, how will this project be funded? With our tax dollars? [40:34] With redirected entrance fees from parks across the country? Anonymous donations flowing into another [40:39] undisclosed fund? We deserve an answer. This is not political. This is eternal. No one needs this arch. [40:47] It is inappropriate, unnecessary, insulting. It is a waste of our land, our time, and our money. Thank you. [40:55] Thank you for that testimony. Thank you for your service, Mr. Shaughnessy. Mr. Gollinger? [41:09] Good afternoon. My name is John Gollinger. I'm the democracy advocate with Public Citizen, [41:16] where I investigate corporate influence on government and elections. The week before the wrecking ball smashed [41:23] into the East Wing, a room of around 100 people gathered in the White House for a candlelight [41:27] dinner. They were there so President Trump could thank them for donating millions of dollars to fund [41:32] his favorite pet project, the White House Golden Ballroom, and also to hear about another of his pet [41:37] projects. We saw him holding up the toy arch earlier. That was at this same dinner, the monumental arch to [41:43] himself. These ballroom dinner donors were prominent lobbyists, big-wig corporate execs, current and wannabe [41:50] billionaires, all kinds of government influence peddlers, and favor seekers. But at the center [41:56] of it all, at the head table, closest to the President, was the person responsible for raising the money. [42:04] So I'm here today to focus on following the money, and I think that starts with the person and the [42:09] people who are raising all of this corrupt money. That person is sitting at the center of the secretive [42:15] fundraising machine that a federal judge in the ballroom case referred to as a Rube Goldberg contraption. [42:20] That person is Meredith O'Rourke. Here she is, laughing all the way to the bank, laughing at [42:27] pulling one over on the American people. It's President Trump's fundraiser in chief. A profile of [42:34] Ms. O'Rourke last fall in a Florida publication called Influence Magazine, appropriately titled, [42:40] reported that she doesn't like the spotlight. She doesn't like it shined on herself or her work. I [42:45] think that's for good reason. Doing what I'm doing right now, and I hope you do a lot more of in the days [42:50] and years to come, exposes the secretive shady schemes that Ms. O'Rourke and her friends have [42:57] employed to raise all this money for the projects we've heard about today. The Ballroom, Freedom 250, [43:03] The Garden for American Heroes, Trashing of the Kennedy Center, probably The Arch, probably more. [43:09] Central to these schemes has been cloaking Ms. O'Rourke's fundraising for all these pet projects with the [43:14] veneer of legitimacy and secrecy by funneling the money through tax-exempt charitable organizations. [43:21] Some of them long-standing groups like the Trust for the National Mall, which has served as the money [43:25] funnel for the 400-plus million for the Ballroom. Some of the money for the Freedom 250 has been [43:35] funneled through the National Park Foundation. The template for both of these projects was the same. [43:40] Hijack a legitimate group, funnel money from donors who want or have gotten something from government, [43:45] and allowed them to be both tax-exempt and secret, steer the money to Donald Trump's piggy bank so he [43:52] can dole the contracts out to friends, no-bid contracts in many or most cases, and spend wild [43:57] sums to build monuments to waste greed and corruption. With my written testimony that I submitted for the [44:04] record is the secret document Public Citizen obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request [44:09] that lays out the Ballroom Project funding scheme in black and white. It says donors who want to be [44:14] anonymous can be. It says money from tobacco companies that typically the Park Service [44:19] and its charities can't take can be taken and more. We did a report right after the Ballroom of the [44:25] East Wing was knocked down that found hundreds of billions of dollars in government contracts went to [44:30] the people, the companies that donated to the Ballroom. Most of them also had federal enforcement [44:34] actions pending or dropped. We did another one recently that found that the majority of the donors got [44:40] more government contracts to the tune of 50 billion since they made their donations. And most of them, [44:45] 16 out of 27 companies, are facing federal enforcement actions or have gotten them suspended. [44:50] That's the donors we know about. What I'm more scared of is the donors we don't. But we will smoke them [44:57] out and we will find out. Last month, along with the Revolving Door Project, Public Citizen analyzed the [45:03] contracts and the corporate money related to Freedom 250. That's a Trump-aligned LLC, limited liability company, [45:10] created and housed inside the National Park Foundation, where conveniently Ms. O'Work was [45:14] installed on the board in March. We found 20 corporate sponsors funded Freedom 250. This is Exxon [45:21] Mobile, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, United Airlines. Undisclosed sums contributed no oversight. [45:26] In another case, Ms. O'Work and her associates have simply invented their own tax-exempt charity out of [45:34] whole cloth. According to the pledge agreement prepared for prospective donors, the National Garden of [45:40] American Heroes Foundation was established this year to fund two Trump projects, the development [45:45] of a Garden of Heroes at West Potomac Park and the dramatic expansion of the East Potomac Park golf [45:52] course. The pledge agreement lists Ms. O'Rourke and her associate as the contacts and states that they [45:57] will seek to retain the anonymity of anonymous donors. What all these sketchy schemes have in common [46:04] is this. Corporate and billionaire donors who want something from government benefit. Meredith O'Rourke [46:10] and her lobbyist friends who helped her raise the money benefit. The charities funneling the money [46:14] benefit. Donald Trump benefits. The American people lose. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Bollinger. [46:27] Thank you for the work that you're doing and your organization. And I'm turning now to Ambassador Iyden. [46:34] Ranking members Blumenthal and Garcia, members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations [46:43] and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Thank you for convening this forum [46:51] and inviting me and all of us to appear today. My name is Norman Eisen. I'm the co-founder of Democracy [47:00] Defenders Action since commencing my law practice in Washington, D.C. 35 years ago. I've worked on ethics, [47:10] anti-corruption and democracy in the United States and around the world, including as the White House [47:18] ethics czar and as the United States ambassador to the Czech Republic. And in all those 35 years, [47:28] I have never seen anything remotely like this. We are experiencing unprecedented corruption in plain [47:41] sight. As Donald Trump moves through his lame duck presidency, he's desperately trying to rewrite his [47:49] legacy. He's defacing the people's landmarks and he's carving his own name into the people's [47:58] institutions. That includes civil cases that I have the privilege to work on among our over 300 matters [48:09] at Democracy Defenders Action and Democracy Defenders Fund. Cases like the Kennedy Center case or the [48:19] demolition of the demolition of the East Wing. I'm going to talk about those cases and why our monuments, [48:28] our public parks and our public lands belong to the American people, not to any president and not to [48:36] Donald Trump. Although I'm also a member of the legal team representing a criminal defendant, Davey Hearn, [48:44] in the reflecting pool case, I will not be discussing that matter today. We've just had a trial date set in [48:52] that case. Let's begin with the East Wing of the White House. As we've discussed, the president tore down [49:01] part of the people's house to build himself a $600 million gold plated ballroom. And then he dumped the [49:10] wreckage on the people's park. Now we have more than 35,000 cubic yards of demolition debris hauled into East [49:23] Potomac Park land Congress set aside to be held forever, forever for the recreation and pleasure of the [49:31] people. The East Potomac Golf Links is their public park where families go. They use both. Trump dumped this [49:39] waste with no environmental review, with no historic preservation review. Is it any wonder that months [49:50] later, the Park Service's own testing found elevated lead, arsenic and mercury in the park? And just this [50:01] past Friday, the government admitted to a federal judge that it never finished testing that soil [50:09] before declaring it safe. I'm very proud that our team joins Democracy Forward and Lowland Associates [50:17] in representing the DC Preservation League and local residents in court. And we do that work in our [50:23] sister organization, Democracy Defenders Fund. Second, you've heard today from my wonderful client and friend, [50:33] Congresswoman Beatty, that Congress named the Kennedy Center for President John F. Kennedy. This president, [50:43] Donald Trump tried to remake that to etch his own name on the facade. We've learned that that's illegal. [50:51] We're going back to court to deal with that tarp. The name has come off. And if there's one principle [50:58] that's been established in today's testimony, and in our case, is that no one mutes Representative Beatty. [51:07] I've been up here for 35 years. I'm not really accustomed to the applause, but I love it. [51:20] It's a lot of pressure as it builds for each additional witness. The Kennedy Center case, [51:31] we're very proud to do. We believe in doing these cases in teams. Very proud that the Washington [51:39] Litigation Group and Nathaniel Zielinski is also here today, is co-counsel with us in that case. [51:46] There is so much more that we could talk about, and I look forward to discussing in response to your [51:53] questions, another form of vandalism, that $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. Perhaps the ultimate [52:04] landmark of our nation is our Constitution. And by making a deal with himself and trying to establish [52:12] a slush fund and an endowment for insurrectionists past and future, he violated the Constitution's case [52:22] and controversy clause. We were so proud to represent 35 bipartisan former federal judges who went to [52:30] court, who stopped him, and who built a different kind of a landmark. Judge Williams' opinion saying [52:38] that in the United States, the law is king. None other. Thank you very much, and I look forward to your [52:47] question. Thank you, Ambassador. We're going to have a five-minute round of questions, and we're going to [53:02] be hopefully somewhat strict on the five minutes because I want to make sure that all of our colleagues [53:08] have a chance to ask questions. I'll begin. And by the way, Ambassador, there's no ethics czar now in the [53:16] White House, is there? I think there's a czar who's in charge of destroying ethics, not defending them. [53:25] The ethics czar is, and ethics czar in charge of destroying ethics and morality, not protecting it. [53:36] You know, I think the challenge that we face here is making sure that Americans understand that [53:42] corruption, whether it's no-bid contracts or self-enrichment or favoring pals and donors, [53:52] has costs. It has costs in ballooning the bills for these projects and in cratering the quality [54:02] of the work that's done. So corruption is not just an abstract issue of morality or ethics, [54:08] it has real costs to taxpayers. And Mr. Gollinger, I was really interested in the research that [54:19] your organization has done. The ballroom was supposed to be privately funded. As a matter of fact, [54:26] now hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be diverted from the Secret Service [54:29] to pay for this $600 gilded boondoggle. But there are also private donors who have been awarded [54:40] $50 billion in taxpayer-funded contracts in just six months. That is a startling [54:50] relevation. Many of these ballroom donors made donations while facing federal enforcement action. [54:56] They had regulatory action pending against them. In addition to receiving contracts for work that [55:03] profited them, the SEC dismissed charges against some of these companies. Metta made a donation while [55:12] facing CFPB investigations and FTC litigation. Coinbase made a donation while the SEC dismissed [55:23] charges against them. Tell me what you think about the impact of these donations on law enforcement that [55:32] protects taxpayers in our country. Thank you for the question, Senator. Well, I worked in law enforcement [55:40] before I came to Public Citizen in 2023. I spent three years in the San Francisco District Attorney's [55:45] Office. And I went in because of a public corruption scandal. I was hired. I was a lawyer, but I'd never [55:51] worked in law enforcement. I was hired to head up public corruption investigations there. And what I [55:57] learned in my three years, and we did some good cases, good meaning bad corruption that we uncovered and [56:02] prosecuted, was that in San Francisco, which is a little city with a lot of money, in every city in this [56:09] country, in the federal government, in every state, the number one corruption crime is procurement fraud, [56:15] i.e. corrupt contracts, right? I'm sure as you well know from your experience. And that is because, [56:22] as was famously said by a bank robber in the 1800s, why does he rob banks? Because that's where the money [56:28] is. Government contracts are juicy targets for thieves and juicy targets for corrupt government [56:34] officials. And these sort of hangers on and associates, as I've been alluding to and discussing, [56:39] you can figure out how to steer those contracts to the people they want to raise money from. And [56:43] that's what we're trying to see if the if actual deals were made. I don't have evidence before you [56:49] today. But also, unlike when I was a prosecutor and an investigator, I don't have this power of search [56:54] warrant. But if you were the chair of this subcommittee next year, you will have that subpoena power. So I [56:59] will lastly just say, when contracts are given to donors as pay to play, it means the costs of [57:07] government services go up, taxpayers pay more, and good, honest businesses pay the price. If you want [57:14] to pay by the play by the rules, you end up losing out. And that's wrong. And we will use that subpoena [57:20] power, both Representative Garcia and myself, if we are fortunate enough to have it next year. You know, [57:29] I went out to the reflecting pool at the end of last week, and my heart broke. We've all been to [57:37] the reflecting pool. We know it's a historic site, the civil rights demonstrations. It's also a place [57:43] where visitors go, an iconic symbol of the greatest nation in the history of the world. It reflects [57:50] America. It reflects the Lincoln Memorial, where Abe Lincoln must be turning over in his grave, [57:59] honest aid, and the Washington Monument. And, you know, the destruction of these kinds of symbols of [58:08] America have real resonance. And I wanted you to be here, Mr. Shaughnessy, because you reflect America. [58:17] Our veterans reflect America. Our veterans have never been consulted about the building of this arch. [58:25] I wanted you to be here, your face and voice, since veterans have had no representation in this [58:36] decision that will vitally affect Arlington Cemetery. What does it say to you that this [58:46] president is constructing an arch without consulting any of the community that will be directly affected [58:52] by it as they go to visit their loved ones who are buried in this sacred place? [58:57] Thank you, sir. It's very taller to represent all the veterans in the country. I do my best. [59:04] There's a couple of different reasons why I find this so insulting is that there's already a process [59:11] in place that ensures that monuments that are constructed represent all of America. We have a [59:18] lot of different opinions and that process has worked. It's worked for previous memorials, [59:23] previous war memorials. Every other monument in D.C. has gone through such a process. And now to bypass [59:31] that process, it tells us, one, it reminds the service member they're expendable, their opinions don't [59:37] matter, and that the commander-in-chief can do what they what they please. By putting it's the location. [59:48] It doesn't matter what goes there. If it's a massive structure that obstructs the view, [59:56] it's because none of the details have been thought through. This is incredibly hasty. I've been at the [1:00:01] National Capital Planning Commission meetings and these folks have not thought about the details. So [1:00:06] let me just highlight the noise. The noise that's required to complete a project of this size. [1:00:11] The digging and the boring and the pouring of concrete and the trucks, the thousands of them, [1:00:16] the cranes that will tower 300 feet high, the port-a-potties that will be lined up for the workers, [1:00:21] the sewage trucks that will empty these port-a-potties and refill them. It's a carnival of [1:00:25] trucks that will circulate around this roundabout in front of the only entrance to Arlington. It's [1:00:31] infuriating. How can anyone conduct a remembrance ceremony with all of this noise and distractions [1:00:38] happening around them? And that's just during the construction phase. These folks who want to build [1:00:43] this arch think of this as an amusement. It was even said so at the last National Capital Planning [1:00:48] Commission that the amusement at the state fair of folks visiting the arch was one of the most [1:00:54] attended portions of the fair. And that's what it is. It's an amusement to them. Our service members [1:01:02] are willing to give up everything. They're willing to give up their time, their lives, time with their [1:01:07] family. And the administration is willing to consider poured concrete and rebarb and a stamped facade. [1:01:16] He can place marble in his bathroom, but he can't consider a marble structure outside of Arlington [1:01:22] Cemetery. Thank you very much. I'm going to turn to Representative Garcia. The Senate is having a vote [1:01:30] at 515, so I may have to run. I'll leave you in charge if that's okay when I have to go. And after [1:01:37] Representative Garcia will turn to, we've been joined by a couple of our Senate colleagues. We have [1:01:43] great representation from the House and we'll get everybody in. Thank you, Senator. And I want to, [1:01:50] before I begin the question, just real briefly, I do want to thank our Ranking Member Huffman, [1:01:54] who's here, our partners at Natural Resources. Obviously, I'm doing incredible work protecting [1:01:59] America's monuments and treasures, so thank you for being here. Also, just want to also add to [1:02:04] Representative Beatty, truly heroic work that you've done at the Kennedy Center. I just want to [1:02:11] personally, on behalf of Oversight Democrats, thank you again for being here and for your incredible work. [1:02:16] And also, we recognize we have Council Member Robert White, who is here, and of course, our shadow [1:02:22] Senator Ankit Jain, who is also here. So thank you both for being here and for your representation. [1:02:32] We obviously have a lot to discuss today. And again, it's outrageous for a President to put monuments [1:02:39] ahead of himself, I'm sorry, to put monuments to himself ahead of the American people, and of [1:02:44] course, the affordability crisis. Now, we want to take a look at each of these projects because they [1:02:49] tell us so much about Donald Trump and his vanity and narcissism. And of course, it tells us a lot about [1:02:55] corruption. Now, we've seen, of course, the images already of the reflecting pool, just the horrific [1:03:00] shoddy job that's happened. But it's important to talk about who actually is doing some of this work. [1:03:06] Now, this is J.J. Carrafaro, of course, a neighbor, a neighbor of President Trump's, [1:03:12] who actually resides just right next to Mar-a-Lago. Now, President Trump called J.J. a fantastic man. [1:03:20] He's a major Trump donor, by the way. He gave President Trump a quarter of a million dollars in [1:03:25] 2020. And he previously pled guilty to corruption and campaign finance violations. This guy right here. [1:03:34] Now, this guy got a $1.7 million contract to install a nanobubble filtration system, [1:03:40] which has been a total and complete disaster, as the president would say. It is a shame. It is [1:03:49] disgusting that Donald Trump is enriching donors and friends by using America's monuments. Now, [1:03:56] Mr. Gollinger, we know the White House claims they weren't involved in the contract. I mean, shocking [1:04:02] that he would, of course, get the contract. But the facts look pretty obvious. Would you say this [1:04:06] is an example of potential corruption that we should be investigating in the Senate and the House? [1:04:10] I would say if it were my case, I would be opening an inquiry into this potential corruption [1:04:19] in a hot minute. And oversight Democrats have. We've asked Mr. Gollinger and his company a series [1:04:24] of questions, and that will continue. Now, we're taking on Trump's corruption at the monuments and the [1:04:29] corruption happening in the private sector here as well. Who were these donors? Why did they finance [1:04:34] these projects? Why did they finance the ballroom? Why are they involved in the arch? The list goes [1:04:39] on and on, and we're going to get those answers. But there's other important issues here. President [1:04:44] Trump's vanity projects in D.C. show also his dishonesty and all of the lies in the administration. [1:04:51] Now, the contractors President Trump used to renovate the pool were clearly incompetent. We've all seen [1:04:56] the images, the lining at the bottom of the pool, and then the embarrassment of the lies of the [1:05:02] President himself, essentially saying that vandalism, it would cause all the problems. Now, we've seen, [1:05:08] of course, one of the President's really unhinged true social posts that he likes to do in the middle [1:05:13] of the in the middle of the morning or the middle of the night. Now, this is, of course, a pretty long [1:05:17] unhinged rant. I'm not going to read the whole thing. But to summarize it, the President of the United [1:05:22] States especially spends his time claiming that someone gutted the surface of the pool with a [1:05:27] knife. He claims somehow that knife and somehow that some chemicals that got poured into the pool [1:05:34] is what caused this massive destruction of the pool, which they've had to, of course, now try to [1:05:39] rebuild on multiple occasions. I mean, this is just blatant lies and an embarrassment to our country. [1:05:46] Mr. Goldinger, has your administration actually produced any evidence of the President's claims? [1:05:51] Not that I've seen. Not a single one. Not at all. [1:05:54] These lies are ridiculous. And now we have the U.S. DOJ, our Department of Justice, trying to [1:06:00] prosecute innocent people who are looking at the pool, who, of course, are being arrested, [1:06:07] who are being moved away. Children, families, athletes, all because of the President's incompetence. [1:06:15] Once again, the person that calls himself the best builder in history can't actually fix a pool. [1:06:22] Here in the district. I also just want to say, Mr. Fultz, thank you for your testimony. [1:06:27] We we, of course, our institution at the Kennedy Center is so important. [1:06:31] Now, President Trump's allies claim that they took over the Kennedy Center to stop woke propaganda. [1:06:37] Is that true? [1:06:41] He said it was woke and broke, which rhymes and that's nice. [1:06:49] No, I'm not really sure what that means. But I mean, our job at the Kennedy Center was to make sure [1:06:54] every every kid, especially that went there, saw themselves represented on stage. [1:07:00] That it's that's the Kennedy Center is is the people's art institution. [1:07:07] So if that's what woke is, then yeah, yeah, sure. I don't know what that means. [1:07:11] Exactly. And I'll have you been to the Kennedy Center to see some performances. [1:07:14] They also claim that nobody was going to the Kennedy Center, that it was it wasn't connecting with audiences. [1:07:20] Is that true? Oh, absolutely not. [1:07:22] As I was saying in my testimony, we had straight sold out shows on our programs. [1:07:27] And as as far as I knew, at least a few years came up in in the black there, [1:07:33] meaning that they they ran a surplus, which is really, really impressive. [1:07:38] And and so now I think the Kennedy Center was going through some golden years, in my opinion. [1:07:43] Thank you. And finally, Congresswoman, I just want to thank you for being here again. [1:07:46] I know that, you know, President Trump kept saying that the board was rigged at the Kennedy Center, [1:07:52] literally silenced you from speaking during during the vote, if I'm not if I'm not correct. [1:07:58] And in response, of course, you led the lawsuit to fight and save the Kennedy Center. [1:08:02] I want to close this to close my questioning here. [1:08:05] Just what what went through your mind seeing this destruction? [1:08:09] And after, of course, you won the suit with others on behalf of the Kennedy Center? [1:08:13] It was it was devastating. As I was sitting there, it was the first that I'm sitting there as a board member, [1:08:21] as a U.S. member of Congress and to be silenced. [1:08:24] And so that was the first part of our journey and working with Norm and Nathaniel for the lawsuit. [1:08:31] I also thought about all the performers, the artists, the people who work in the boxes, [1:08:37] the people who sell tickets. And it's about jobs. And at this critical time in our country, [1:08:43] when we're talking about affordability, when we're talking about putting food on the table, [1:08:48] I thought about all of those folks and they love their jobs. If you've ever been to the Kennedy Center, [1:08:54] they do it with such grace and pride. So the fight wasn't about me. It was about it being unlawful. [1:09:02] So I've always said consistently it was about the rule of law. We cannot let individuals like Donald [1:09:10] Trump get it twisted that he can do any and everything he wants without pushback. [1:09:16] And it was about the arts and being a board member serving with Joe Kennedy. When I first went on the [1:09:23] board, it's the love of art for me, love of that institution. But it was really about the American [1:09:29] people. It was much bigger than the Kennedy Center. While it was all about it, it was about jobs. It was [1:09:38] about making people feel that there is still hope in this country and that people will still stand up [1:09:45] and fight. And when we fight, we win. That's right. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Thank you, [1:09:58] Senator Reid. Well, thank you, Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Congressman Garcia. Thank you all to our [1:10:05] witnesses. First, I want to thank and salute Mr. Shaughnessy for his service in the United States [1:10:13] Marine Corps. Thank you very much and your continued connection. And I share your concern about the arch. [1:10:20] It will desecrate Arlington National Cemetery. So thank you for your work. But let me ask Ambassador [1:10:27] Eisen. One of the other proposals is to take West Potomac Park and make it the National Garden of [1:10:36] American heroes. And I have this feeling that most of them will be donors to the Trump campaign. But [1:10:44] that's beside the point. Oh, no. And then the other issue is taking the East Potomac Park and making it a [1:10:53] golf course, which will not be, I think, accessible as it is today to the public. Could you give us the [1:11:02] legal issues surrounding these things and what might be done to frustrate this strategy? [1:11:08] Thank you, Senator. On the utilization of these parks or the Kennedy Center or other public monuments, [1:11:21] Congress has spoken and it has dictated uses for these public places. Take, for example, putting in a [1:11:36] Trump country club style golf course in the East Potomac Park. This is a piece of parkland where you [1:11:45] have a historic public course that is truly a public course. When I go out there, you see people of all [1:11:55] ages from every different part of D.C. and the larger areas, families, grandparents golfing with their [1:12:04] kids. It's affordable. It's accessible. It's one of the first of its kind anywhere in the country. So it's [1:12:13] also a landmark. Other public parks around the country have been built on that. It is a desecration [1:12:22] to take that at great cost to the American people because Donald Trump's corruption is something that [1:12:29] we all pay for to take that and to convert it to this kind of a Trump country club style course that we [1:12:39] don't need, we don't want, we don't want to pay for. We certainly don't want 35,000 cubic yards of toxic [1:12:49] dirt there where children are playing, being dumped from the East Wing destruction. So those, and that's [1:12:58] why we've gone to court to address it in terms of this illegal dumping on the land and other related legal [1:13:06] issues. Well, thank you very, very much. I must confess, having flunked golf at West Point, I'm not [1:13:14] the biggest golf fan, but I want to see that course maintained as a public course with access for [1:13:19] everyone. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next we're going to hear from Ranking Member Huffman. [1:13:28] Thank you very much, Ranking Member Garcia and Senator Blumenthal for holding this important hearing and for [1:13:35] inviting me to participate as the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, where we're working [1:13:40] shoulder to shoulder with our oversight committee colleagues to bring some transparency and [1:13:44] accountability to this mess. Every president thinks about their legacy, what they'll leave for the [1:13:50] American people. Most of them try to earn one. Donald Trump is skipping that step. Instead, he's using his [1:13:58] presidency as a huge grift to build himself vanity projects covered in lots of gold paint and to pay for [1:14:05] it with other people's money, including a lot of our money. Now, earlier this month, the Natural Resources [1:14:11] Committee Democrats released this 55 page report from Vanity to Insanity. And it describes how President [1:14:20] Trump hijacked America's 250th, turning it into an opportunity for raising and spending money in service [1:14:26] of his own ego, his own political agenda, and in many cases, his own personal and family enrichment. While American [1:14:34] service members die and the global economy sputters because of a wrongheaded and illegal war he has [1:14:41] started, while working families struggle with the cost of living, the president of the United States is [1:14:46] weirdly obsessed with picking out marble for his ballroom and pushing plans for a massive arch to honor [1:14:54] himself. And he's paying for all of this with a combination of public money and also money from [1:15:01] corporations who are vying for business from the Trump administration and foreign interests as well. [1:15:07] So let's start with the public money. You know, when anyone in this room goes to a flagship park like [1:15:13] Yosemite, most of the money that you pay for your entrance fee is supposed to stay there to help fix [1:15:21] trails and repair facilities. The rest of that money, though, goes to fund smaller parks with fewer [1:15:27] resources. And instead of allowing that to work as it should, Trump has diverted over $90 million of [1:15:34] these shared entrance fees to prepare for his vanity arch to decorate the White House and to fix up D.C. [1:15:43] statues. And for many families, parks are the only affordable vacation option they have. But this summer, [1:15:51] they are arriving to struggling parks, understaffed parks, unsafe parks in many ways because of [1:15:57] Republican funding and staff cuts. And now on top of all of that, the president is siphoning off more [1:16:03] parks money to spend on his vanity projects. So, Mr. Shaughnessy, you work with veterans in our national parks. [1:16:12] Tell us what is happening this summer and what $90 million would have paid for if it had stayed in the [1:16:19] park system where it belongs? Certainly. Our parks and public lands are intended to showcase the [1:16:25] democracy of our nation by setting aside accessible land and spaces for all people, citizens and visitors [1:16:31] to our nation for access. Our national parks are specifically for recreating and telling the story [1:16:37] of America. The recreation and storytelling is managed by people and people need assurances like job [1:16:43] stability and adequate pay. Deberting fees from parks that collect them further jeopardizes the ability [1:16:48] of park staff in those parks to facilitate safe operations and tell the complete and accurate [1:16:53] story of our country. I was just recently in Shenandoah for four days bringing my nephew on his first [1:16:59] camping and hiking trip, and I saw two park rangers the entire time at the gate and at the campground. [1:17:06] The trails were washed out. Trail signs were missing. The bathrooms were cleaned by the camp posts, but the [1:17:12] equipment was faulty and outdated. Wildlife were in the campground, grazing next to tents and cars. [1:17:17] All of the all of this makes camping and recreating less safe and less inviting. These spaces should [1:17:24] be accessible to all regardless of outdoor recreation experience and or their comfort with roughing it. [1:17:30] They're not just parks are not just for the super fit and terribly rugged. They're for everyone. Parks [1:17:35] and park staff are there as a guide and a symbol of safety. Those park staff deserve to have adequate pay [1:17:42] an adequate budget to address the needs of the unit they manage. Thank you, Mr. Shaughnessy. Now let's talk [1:17:48] about the corporate money. These so-called donations, although it seems to me donations is a generous [1:17:55] word for checks that are written, for example, by a company that just happens to have a merger decision [1:18:01] sitting on the president's desk. These are secret tax-deductible payments to the president's monument fund, [1:18:09] and in return the donors, massive corporations like ExxonMobil, Oracle, and Palantir get access [1:18:15] to the White House. One of them hasn't reported, only one of them has reported a dime on their lobbying [1:18:23] disclosures of all of this dark money. So Mr. Gollinger, Public Citizen's been tracking these corporate [1:18:28] donors. Of all the companies writing these checks, which one has the most to gain based on your [1:18:36] investigation, and what is it that is sitting on the administration's desk right now? Right, that's a hard [1:18:42] question because of the secrecy, right? So from the contract we know they're secret donors, so we don't know [1:18:47] what we don't know yet. But from the ones we do know of the 27 corporations that have been identified as [1:18:54] donating to the ballroom, I would single out NextEra Energy. So they, this energy company is already massive, just [1:19:00] announced a massive 67 billion dollar merger with Dominion to become largest energy utility around, [1:19:08] and that would potentially be a monopoly that would raise rates. So that decision whether to approve that [1:19:13] merger by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or to challenge it through antitrust in the DOJ run by [1:19:19] Todd Blanche, who reports, as we all know, to Donald Trump, I fear is effectively a done deal because [1:19:26] of the money. So we in public citizens and others are challenging it. It's being challenged in multiple [1:19:30] states. I would also single out Lockheed Martin, which has massive government contracts, already has [1:19:36] received tens of billions. But of course, as a defense contractor, stands to gain tens of billions [1:19:41] more because of the massive military funding the president's trying to jam through for his Iran war. [1:19:47] Thank you, Mr. Goldrea. As I wrap up, let me say, if the White House is watching, [1:19:51] you're not going to get away with this. We have more documents. We have more whistleblowers. And in [1:19:58] the months and weeks to come, the American people are going to see all of this. There will be a full [1:20:02] accounting. I yield back. Thank you. Senator Wyden. Thank you very much, [1:20:12] Senator Blumenthal. Congressman Garcia has been good to work with you on Epstein projects and [1:20:17] other priorities. And I particularly want to follow up with Congressman Huffman's remarks because [1:20:23] they touch on the parks. And these cuts to the parks are hitting our communities like a wrecking [1:20:28] ball. And in particular, it seems to me, and I want to direct this conversation to you, Mr. Shaughnessy, [1:20:34] the Park Service should have used that money that has been wasted to do hazardous fuels cleanup and [1:20:41] reduce the risk of wildfires to protect visitors and local communities. These fires that we're seeing in [1:20:47] the West are not your grandfather's fires. They're bigger. They're hotter. They're hitting our [1:20:51] communities like a wrecking ball. And this summer alone, wildfires have forced the closure of Oregon's [1:20:57] Painted Hills National Monument because the park staff doesn't have the resources they need to protect [1:21:04] our treasures. That's really what's at stake. They're filching this money to take from our treasures. [1:21:09] Now, Oregonians said the People's Center, Merkley and I are honored to represent, have been left [1:21:14] literally as a result of this negligence in the line of fire, all because Trump has filched the money for [1:21:21] vanity projects that ought to go to protecting our communities. Here's my question. The Parks [1:21:27] Conservation Association that you know works so well with local communities to support projects and [1:21:34] policies that make our national parks safer. How has the Trump pursuit of vanity derailed projects that [1:21:41] we need to protect American communities in Oregon and around the country during the wildfire season? [1:21:48] Yes, sir. Thank you. In 2014, I spent some time on the fire line with BLM and out of Klamath Falls, [1:22:00] so I'm deeply familiar with the landscape and the fire needs of of Oregon and Eastern Washington. And [1:22:07] what I can say is that any dollar that is spent on new construction projects from fee collecting parks [1:22:13] is a dollar that cannot be spent on enhancing the firefighting ability of the entity and unit [1:22:18] that receives the money. These units base their annual budget on fee dollars, and if that budget has a bunch [1:22:23] of zeros and question marks, wildfire preparedness will at best stay stagnant and at worst decline. The [1:22:31] best way to fight fire is prevention. By the time the fire crew arrives, it's already too late. Smokey told us that [1:22:36] only you can prevent forest fires. And it's absolutely true. In the National Park, everyone plays a role in [1:22:41] ensuring fire does not start or spread. Every ranger is given some degree of fire training, and there are daily rules and tasks. All uniformed personnel [1:22:49] have to accomplish to prevent fire from starting. When the fire crew arrives, it's suppression time. [1:22:55] Diverting fees can impact the ability to pay staff. Without paid staff, those folks will need to find [1:23:01] other employment, thus removing the knowledge and experience of fire prevention. In addition to the [1:23:07] staff, the visitors have a role in preventing wildfire, and those visitors cannot be properly informed if [1:23:12] there are not staff there to inform them on how to prevent fires from starting. Any dollar diverted from a [1:23:18] national park to a new construction project is furthering the harm of these increasing wildfires. [1:23:25] Well, Mr. Shaughnessy, first of all, you're being way too logical for the Trump administration. [1:23:30] And the point really is, we have to get the message out. And we want to work with you because you're making a big [1:23:36] difference. And I don't think it's just Oregon that's going to be hit by this fire wrecking ball. It's going to be all over the [1:23:42] West. We just appreciate your leadership. Let's give Mr. Shaughnessy a big round of applause. Thank you. [1:23:54] Thank you. Representative Norton. I strongly oppose President Trump's attempt to make the District of [1:24:10] Columbia in his image, including his military, militarizing of the streets, a takeover of the Kennedy Center, [1:24:21] demolition of the East Wing, installation of permanent fencing at Lafayette Park, transformation of West [1:24:38] Potomac Park into a statue garden and construction of an arch. I strongly oppose his redevelopment of East [1:24:52] Potomac Park. While the Gulf Coast there needs investment, it must remain affordable and accessible [1:25:03] for all golfers. Furthermore, federal law requires the park to, quote, be forever held and used as a park [1:25:17] for the recreation and pleasure of people, end quote. The park, which is beloved by residents of the nation's [1:25:31] capital, region, and visitors must remain available for public recreation, including walking and running, [1:25:43] biking, picnicking, and fishing. The administration is also must immediately remove the more than 35,000 cubic [1:25:58] yards of toxic debris, which the East Potomac Wing is dumped there. Mr. Shaughnessy, what would be lost [1:26:12] by Trump's redevelopment of East Development Park? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, so I will try my best to [1:26:20] answer this from my personal experience visiting our national parks in D.C. Um, our public lands and [1:26:29] spaces are to be public. Golf is a very popular sport. It has a hefty price tag to pay with the clubs, [1:26:35] the gear, the shoes, the time. It's very expensive. Allowing a public course gives people operating on a [1:26:41] budget the opportunity to play a sport at an affordable price. Allowing them to access at a [1:26:46] reduced cost furthers the possibility they can improve their game, maybe enter a tournament and [1:26:50] compete. Seizing public land for private interest is reminiscent of Robert Moses, and we're still [1:26:56] dealing with harmful effects from that. If privatized, certain portions of this population [1:27:00] will not be able to afford entry. Maybe that's the intent. Thank you. Senator Merkley. Thank you all [1:27:19] very much and all of you who are attending, uh, for coming together to talk about, uh, the egocentric [1:27:26] projects of this president and how it's betraying the very values of our nation. But first, uh, [1:27:31] Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, I want to, I know you're retiring in January. I want to thank you [1:27:35] very much for your decades of service advocating for the District of Columbia. I'm so glad we were able [1:28:08] to honor you here in the Senate, Congresswoman Norton. You know, I was, uh, here in D.C. for the 200th [1:28:16] anniversary of, of our nation. Uh, and I don't know how that's possible because I'm not even 50 years [1:28:23] old yet. So how did that happen? Uh, but I came here as an intern for Senator Hatfield and it was [1:28:29] such a joyous summer of America coming together with no partisan divisions and the celebration of [1:28:36] the American heritage on the, on the mall all year long. And the mood couldn't be, have been more [1:28:42] different from this summer where Trump basically ruined the national celebration of our values by [1:28:51] turning it into a partisan self-serving, uh, uh, affair. And that's, it's just, um, you know, [1:28:58] he sucked all of the color and joy, uh, out of that national celebration, just like, and I was thinking [1:29:06] symbolically how I was reading how the, the color in the reflecting pool, the blue had turned to gray and [1:29:13] thought, well, that's symbolic of, of really the whole affliction of, of this president on the [1:29:19] national, uh, mood. And, um, in particular, it's so offensive. We've talked about these ego projects [1:29:28] and how much they're costing and that they're not approved by Congress and he's using slush funds [1:29:32] to achieve them and all of that. But I want to talk for just a moment about a piece of this and that's [1:29:37] his putting his image on coins on, on park passes as well as the Kennedy Center and why that is just [1:29:46] so offensive. You know, our founders said there's King George and he puts his name on everything [1:29:52] because he's a king and it's all about him and power flows through the king down to the people. [1:29:59] But we don't do that in the United States of America. Our founders were saying, no, [1:30:03] we don't do that because here power flows up from the people through their electeds to achieve that [1:30:10] vision of government of, by, and for the people. Uh, do you all find it offensive that he put his [1:30:16] vision on the, on the park passes? Well, amen. It sure is. And it, it's like because it represents [1:30:26] two things. One, he's an authoritarian promoting himself rather than celebrating the values of our [1:30:33] nation on our 250th anniversary. And the, the second, uh, aspect of this is just like, [1:30:41] he doesn't care about our parks. So he's the last person who should ever appear on a, on a park pass. [1:30:47] And, uh, so I do have a, a bill, uh, the prohibit partisan park passes that says no, [1:30:53] no sitting, uh, elected or president can appear on a park pass. Uh, let's get the wildlife back on the [1:30:58] park passes. And then he's putting his image on a coin. And that really is something emperors and [1:31:06] kings do not leaders of democratic republics. And, uh, I do find it kind of ironic that it's a fake [1:31:15] gold coin. And in that way, maybe it represents so much about this president and his fake, uh, values, [1:31:25] but nonetheless, his image does not belong on a, on a coin. Uh, no president has done that. No sitting [1:31:31] president has done it while he's serving. Uh, and, uh, we even had law that said you can't put your [1:31:37] image on a coin, but it had a little loophole in it because it just said on, on one side and, and [1:31:42] it's been interpreted mean, well, if you can put it, you can't, you, you can't put it on one side, [1:31:46] you can put it on the other side. So that's what the administration is, is saying. And, uh, [1:31:50] so my change corruption act, uh, would, would ban any repeat and, and stop this coin from being [1:31:58] distributed. So I realize it's symbolic, but it's symbolic of something fundamental to our nation, [1:32:05] that our public spaces are for the public and our leaders take the power from the people, [1:32:12] not the other way around. Let's restore the vision of government of by and for the people. [1:32:21] And I really intended to invite you and best ambassador, uh, to, to, to comment, [1:32:25] if you'd like on my, my diatribe. Um, the distinction between the United States, [1:32:36] which was born in the rejection of Kings and other countries who put living monarchs on their coins, [1:32:46] speaks to the spirit of the law, Senator, including the Thayer amendment, which, uh, is one of the laws [1:32:54] that you're referring to and whatever the, uh, precise legalities, no prior present, [1:33:02] president would have imagined, uh, uh, flying in the face of that meaning and purpose and history [1:33:10] of our laws. So, uh, it is a yet another, uh, offense. I will say it is very fortunate. The American people [1:33:20] uh, see this and they understand that this is a presidency that is not about them bringing down [1:33:28] their costs, uh, fighting corruption and delivering competency. We've got a cost corrupt, a cost crisis [1:33:37] that's driven by a competency and corruption crisis. And we will all be able to see that when the fake [1:33:45] gold coin is out there. Uh, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. Uh, next up is [1:33:53] representative Christian Murphy. Thank you, ranking member. Thank you to the witnesses. Um, I'd like [1:33:59] to start first with a quick game that captures just how absurd the vanity projects have become. [1:34:04] Mr. Gollinger, I want to ask you a question, which leader named a brand new class of warships after [1:34:11] himself, a move so unprecedented and absurd that none of his predecessors even considered or proposed [1:34:20] doing the same. Here are your choices. Donald Trump, Muammar Gaddafi, or Turkmen Bashi? I'm going to take [1:34:31] a leap and say Donald Trump. You are correct. Who put his own portrait in our country's passports? [1:34:40] Trump, Gaddafi, or Turkmen Bashi? I'm going to take another long guess and say Donald [1:34:48] Trump. You're correct. It was President Trump. Even Turkmen dictator Turkmen Bashi, a man who famously [1:34:55] renamed the months of the year after himself, did not do the same. Last question. Which leader wanted [1:35:04] to add a 60-foot granite monument of himself carved into the side of a mountain? Trump, Gaddafi, or Turkmen [1:35:11] Bashi? That one I know is Donald Trump. President Trump. Room for one more on Mount Rushmore. The [1:35:20] President wants to know. I think the answer is no. What do you guys think? No. Let me turn to my next [1:35:28] topic on a more serious note. It appears that President Trump is mirroring the actions of [1:35:35] dictators worldwide. Ambassador Eisen, the giant posters of President Trump draped over federal [1:35:41] buildings here in Washington evoke the same looming display of Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, wouldn't you say? [1:35:50] I would, Congressman. And as the Washington Post has reported, years before Trump gutted the White [1:35:57] House to create his golden ballroom, Erdogan built his own vanity project called the White Palace. [1:36:05] I'm sure it has a nice ballroom as well. But the similarities don't end with these vanity projects. [1:36:12] Under Erdogan, Turkey descended into electoral autocracy through voter roll purges and the intimidation of [1:36:18] election officials, right, Mr. Eisen? Yes, that's correct, Congressman. And here at home, [1:36:25] President has demanded the President has demanded voter list audits, push for voter purges. And just last [1:36:33] week, Politico reported that Secretary Mullen threatened election officials with prison time, [1:36:39] prison time, if they did not cooperate with the administration. You don't dispute that either, right? [1:36:44] I don't. And I'm very proud that our organization quashed a criminal subpoena for one of our clients, [1:36:52] a county, Fulton County. It's an abuse of government power. [1:36:57] Totally. Mr. Gollinger, I want to turn to my next topic. I'm sure you are aware of at least seven [1:37:05] individuals who've been charged in connection with vandalism of President Trump's vanity projects, [1:37:10] correct? I've heard what I've read in the news. It's fair to say that many, if not all of these [1:37:18] defendants have been victims of overzealous prosecution, right? That's certainly what it [1:37:23] looks like from the news reports. Well, let's look at who has not been subject to investigation or [1:37:28] prosecution. Leslie Groff. Leslie Groff worked for Jeffrey Epstein for 18 years, scheduling countless [1:37:36] massages during which Epstein sexually assaulted underage women. It seems surprising that [1:37:42] the Trump's DOJ has not announced an investigation of Groff, correct? That's troubling. Leon Black. [1:37:49] Leon Black has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault and helped bankroll Epstein to the tune of [1:37:55] $158 million. And yet the DOJ has not announced a single investigation of this man either, correct? [1:38:03] That's troubling. This contrast says everything about Trump. If you damage one of his vanity projects, [1:38:10] such as the reflecting pool, the DOJ will pursue you. However, when extensive records implicate you in [1:38:17] the worst sex trafficking ring in modern history, this DOJ will look away. Mr. Gollinger, last month, [1:38:28] the New York Times reported that President Trump's construction spree could cost at least $1.2 billion. [1:38:36] dollars. You don't dispute those numbers, right? That sounds right. It's probably it's probably an [1:38:40] undercount. It's probably an undercount. Let's see how this money could be used otherwise. In my home [1:38:45] state of Illinois, countless families will lose SNAP benefits under President Trump. $1.2 billion [1:38:52] could restore all those SNAP benefits this year. You don't dispute that, right? No. Medicaid. Countless [1:39:00] Illinoisans are going to lose their Medicaid under Trump. $1.2 billion would restore Medicaid for 130,000 [1:39:08] Illinoisans this year. You don't dispute that either. I don't. Ultimately, this is a story of [1:39:13] priorities, right, Congresswoman Beatty? You're absolutely right. President Trump found billions of [1:39:23] dollars for his vanity projects, but he cuts billions of dollars from the vital safety net programs that [1:39:31] struggling families every day rely on, including, as this woman has pointed out on her excellent sign, [1:39:39] 67 percent of American workers who are living paycheck to paycheck. And that is what today is about. [1:39:47] It's one man's vanity over the priorities of the American people. Thank you, and I yield back. [1:39:53] Thank you, Representative. Next up is Representative Brown. [1:39:57] I want to say thanks to ranking members Garcia and Blumenthal for holding this shadow hearing today, [1:40:07] and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. I represent Ohio's 11th congressional district where [1:40:13] families are forced to do even more with even less under this administration. They are worried about [1:40:19] whether their rent will increase again, whether child care will consume an entire paycheck, whether they [1:40:25] will lose their health care, and whether there will be enough to make ends meet and put food on the table. [1:40:31] Two years ago, Trump promised to lower costs on day one, but his attention has been on just about [1:40:37] anything else, anything that glorifies him or enriches himself and his wealthy friends. [1:40:43] This president had a choice and he chose wrong. He chose warfare instead of health care. He chose to [1:40:51] cut taxes for billionaires instead of cutting costs for working families. He chose donor giveaways instead of [1:40:57] helping families put food on the table. He chose to build shrines unto himself, billion dollar ballrooms, [1:41:04] gilded renovations to the Oval Office, 100 million dollar arch, putting his name on the famed Kennedy [1:41:10] Center, 16 million dollar no bid contracts to donors for botched reflecting pool renovations. That tells the [1:41:19] American people everything they need to know about how out of touch he is with reality. When President [1:41:26] Trump wants a ballroom, an arch or any other monument unto himself, there is urgency. There are wealthy donors, [1:41:33] there are no bid contracts, and there are efforts to move hundreds of millions of dollars that Congress [1:41:38] appropriated for other purposes. He isn't operating the White House as the people's house. He's operating [1:41:45] it like an extension of Mar-a-Lago, a private club where money, access, and loyalty buys influence. [1:41:52] It's the new gilded age with Donald Trump acting as the party boss, rewarding friends, enriching insiders, [1:42:00] and using public institutions to consolidate his personal power. But when a family needs housing [1:42:07] assistance, child care assistance, food assistance, a stronger child tax credit, or help paying for [1:42:14] college, suddenly Republicans hands are tied and there's not enough money they say. Meanwhile, they're [1:42:22] cutting every basic social safety net where we have to pay so that we have to pay for tax cuts for wealthy [1:42:29] people. The White House is not a private club. The National Mall is not the president's personal [1:42:36] property and taxpayer dollars are not a slush fund for the president's vanity or private enrichment. [1:42:43] The true measure of a leader is not the size of a ballroom, the amount of gold on the walls, [1:42:48] or whether a public building bears your name. It's whether a child has enough to eat, whether a family [1:42:57] has a safe and affordable place to live, whether a parent can afford child care, and whether someone [1:43:05] has a fair chance to pursue an education. President Trump is building monuments for himself while millions [1:43:12] of Americans are simply asking their government to provide some help and stability. Congresswoman Beatty, [1:43:21] it is always good to serve alongside a fellow Ohioan, and you bring firsthand experience as a trustee. [1:43:28] From that perspective, what has President Trump's takeover and politicization of the Kennedy Center [1:43:35] done to its governance, public mission, and standing as an institution that belongs to all Americans, [1:43:41] not any one president or political faction? Well, first of all, let me just say thank you, [1:43:45] and thank you for your service and asking me that question. I think as you've heard from all of the [1:43:51] witnesses here, what he has done is led what many of us already were aware of, that he has no interest [1:43:59] in the American people. He has no interest in the services that you just outlined for us, because when you [1:44:07] think about how he is putting millions, if not billions of dollars into these vanity projects, [1:44:14] and as you talked about our children, when you think of in your great state, some 50,000 children [1:44:22] have lost their SNAP benefits. Overall, 1.5 million children. When we talk about retrofitting housing [1:44:30] housing for those who are in need of one of our top priorities, he's cut those funds, and the list [1:44:37] could go on and on. Part of the reason that we are here today is to make sure that the American people [1:44:44] who are watching us know that they don't have to stand for this. Their voices are powerful. We have [1:44:51] heard from experts here in all avenues of the historic landmarks that he's ruining. [1:44:58] I think the number one answer for me is enough is enough, and we can be victorious by continuing [1:45:07] to speak up, but we need the American people to stand with us. That's probably the greatest message [1:45:13] that we can have. We've been victorious in the courtroom. We're going to be victorious with the [1:45:19] people, and so we need to make sure that people go out and use their voices, that they vote their voice, [1:45:27] and they're voting for the things that will help them have a better quality of life. Thank you. [1:45:34] Thank you so much, and if the chairman will indulge me, you spoke on experts. [1:45:38] Mr. Gollinger, when wealthy donors with businesses before the federal government [1:45:42] financed the president's preferred projects, politically connected companies receive no-bid contracts, [1:45:48] and public funds are redirected, it begins to resemble a modern political patronage machine. [1:45:53] What safeguards are being passed, and what information must Congress obtain to determine [1:45:58] whether access, contracts, or favorable government treatment are being exchanged for political or [1:46:03] financial support? I mean, the point of having a free and fair marketplace is that the best product, [1:46:10] the best service, wins for the best price. That's the opposite of what you just described, [1:46:15] giving wealthy donors, politically connected folks, people who are engaging in backroom deals for the [1:46:21] ballroom and these other projects, a leg up on competition that's trying it the real honest way, [1:46:26] distorts the system, costs the American people more, and destroys trust in government. So every single, [1:46:32] to me, every single donor to all these projects should be sitting here, answering questions about [1:46:38] how much they gave, who they talked to, and what they got for it. They should be doing it today, [1:46:43] under the current majority in the Senate and the House, but I hope they will be doing it next year, [1:46:47] because it's a red flag when you donate to a politician who then gives you something back. [1:46:54] It should be the opposite. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. I'm going to go to [1:46:58] Senator Hirona, who has joined us, and just as I know a lot of us have been going a little bit over, [1:47:03] which I think everyone has been guilty of. I'm going to try to keep us a little closer to those five [1:47:07] minutes if possible, but Senator, thank you. Senator Hirona Thank you. To focus on the corruption of this [1:47:19] regime, I call it regime because of its authoritarianism, and at this point, there are [1:47:26] over 800 lawsuits that have been filed to stop Trump from doing all of his illegal actions, whether it's [1:47:33] holding back preparations that Congress has already provided, and the list goes on. I did want to ask, [1:47:41] I think that we have two lawyers on the panel, Mr. Gallinger and Ambassador Isen. I want to ask you, [1:47:51] do you think the president believes that the rule of law applies to him? Do I think that Donald Trump [1:47:57] believes the rule of law applies to him? Is that the question? Do you think that he thinks the rule [1:48:01] of law applies to him? No. This individual thinks he is above the law. Mr. Okay. What happened to Mr. Isen? [1:48:14] I think he just stepped out into the back. I can't quite make you all out. Okay. Meanwhile, [1:48:21] the Supreme Court decided, and I would call it the infamous 2024 immunity decision, where basically [1:48:30] they gave the president immunity from criminal prosecution. Do you think that this decision simply [1:48:39] caused Trump to truly believe that the law was on his side when he decided to do all kinds of things [1:48:49] that are probably highly questionable from ethical as well as a legal standpoint? Well, I wouldn't, [1:48:55] neither as a lawyer nor as an American, try to get inside Donald Trump's head, because that's a losing [1:49:00] battle and I don't want to be there. But I would say that it's certainly, in my experience, exactly how [1:49:04] crooks operate, is that when they're given an open door and no oversight, they raid the bank. And [1:49:11] that's what this president's been doing every day. Well, do you, not to, I want to thank all of the [1:49:18] panelists for testifying today, but do you think any, for any of you, do you think we have a democracy [1:49:26] without checks and balances and rule of law? Absolutely not. Under this president and this [1:49:35] administration, they have no respect for the rule of law. And certainly when you talk about our [1:49:43] democracy, I think that's why we're here. We're fighting to restore our democracy and to have [1:49:48] fairness for all American people. So in your view, we do not have an appropriate checks and balances [1:49:55] at this point. Definitely not. This president acts as a dictator. And the rest of the panel, [1:50:00] do you think that we have checks and balances as far as this regime is concerned? You have to [1:50:11] speak into the link. I would like to have hope that we still can. Sure. I mean, I think I'd say the [1:50:19] same. My title is democracy advocate. So that's what I fight for every day. But I've never seen it more [1:50:23] in danger, certainly in my life. And I don't think in the 250 years, the existence of this country, [1:50:28] that a real American democracy with checks and balances, which ensure that we don't have a king [1:50:34] again, which is what Declaration of Independence had 27 grievances against. And unless we get that [1:50:40] back, we fear it could slip back into what we fought against. So what do you think we need to do [1:50:45] in order to restore checks and balances and the rule of law in this country? I think we need to put a [1:50:51] spotlight on every single problem that's been outlined today. I think the American people, I trust the [1:50:55] American people. I don't think most hardworking Americans want a government that steals from them, [1:51:02] that enriches themselves, and that gives us bad outcomes. I don't think that's what the people [1:51:06] of this country want. But I think they have to see it. So there's a lot more that people are seeing [1:51:10] now than they were a year and a half ago. But I do think it's the job of everyone in this room, [1:51:15] everyone watching, and everyone who has a platform and a chance to investigate to root, to put the [1:51:21] spotlight on the corruption. I think the American people, when they see it, they'll do everything [1:51:26] they can to stop it. Oh, I agree with you. I think that's why the spotlight hearing is so important. [1:51:32] And when we have the executive branch, the House, U.S. House, U.S. Senate controlled by one person, [1:51:38] the president, we do not have checks and balances. And the only entity that is preventing the total [1:51:44] annihilation, I would say, of a democracy are the courts. And we have a president who believes that [1:51:49] judges ought to be impeached. Judges who hold against him, which they do, thankfully, in about [1:51:54] 75 percent of the cases that are filed, that he thinks that those judges ought to be impeached. What [1:52:00] do you think? I mean, I think that's a horrible way to show respect for the rule of law. Do the rest of [1:52:07] the panelists agree? Agree. Is my time up, Mr. Chairman? Almost, but if you have another question, [1:52:16] please. Thank you, Vera. Thank you very much. And once again, I think it is very important to [1:52:21] shine a spotlight literally on all of the illegalities, I would say, of this regime and [1:52:28] the fact that he believes he can do whatever he wants. I mean, whoever heard of a president, [1:52:33] any president who would destroy half of the White House, who will build a fight ring behind the White [1:52:40] House, who would do all these contracts, non-bid contracts to his pals, who sells everything he can [1:52:48] sell, including now coins. It's just amazing to me. And thank you all for shining a light on all of [1:52:55] his illegalities. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Senator. And now we have Representative Stansbury. [1:53:02] All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. I want to just start out by saying Congresswoman, [1:53:07] Madam Joyce Beatty, you are an American hero. And I am certain that this era in American history will go down [1:53:25] as an era. I don't know what we're going to call it yet, but I know the history books are going to [1:53:32] remember the heroes who stood up. And I know that Congresswoman Beatty, I know that our advocates, [1:53:38] I know that the attorneys who are on the front lines litigating these cases will be in the history books. [1:53:44] And I also know that this administration and this president, which is filled with grifters, scammers, [1:53:53] scoundrels, and yes, sketchy schemes, as you said, sir, who are selling access, favors, pardons, [1:54:00] and just making money every single day for their friends are not only going to go down in history [1:54:07] for the malfeasance that they have committed against this government and our people. But I am also certain [1:54:13] that this Congress is going to investigate every single inch and hold them accountable. And that is [1:54:20] what this hearing is about today. Now, I want to just talk a little bit about how these sketchy schemes [1:54:30] are really centering around our monuments and our most treasured places. Let's begin with the White House. [1:54:37] The White House has never simply been the president's house or a residence. It is the people's house, [1:54:45] a symbol of our democracy, a symbol of our commitment to transitions, peaceful transitions of power, [1:54:51] and it belongs to the American people. And not only has this president broken the law by demolishing the [1:54:58] East Wing and destroying irreparably history that has existed on that property since this nation's [1:55:05] founding, they have given it away to the highest bidder. 27 corporate donors, 15 individual donors, [1:55:15] who have given millions of dollars in exchange for over $50 billion in contracts by the federal [1:55:21] government. Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Google, HP, Lockheed, Palantir. These are the people who bought [1:55:30] the demolition of the White House. Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington is one of our most sacred places [1:55:40] as a nation. More than 400,000 service members and their families are laid to rest here. Every monument, [1:55:49] pathway, and memorial exists to honor the sacrifice of the men and women who have given their lives for [1:55:56] this great country. And now Donald Trump wants to spend a hundred million dollars of your taxpayer [1:56:03] dollars. He's not even asking for his illicit donations to put an arch up to himself that would block [1:56:10] the view of one of our most sacred memorials of unknown soldiers. The Kennedy Center opened in 1971 [1:56:22] as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy. It is a symbol of bipartisan culture and arts that has [1:56:30] hosted artists programming for decades, for generations representing the best of this country. Not only did he [1:56:39] try to inscribe his name on this building, he has set up a pay-to-play scheme that has involved self-dealing [1:56:47] and replaced some of the most important programming that this country puts on every day. And this amazing [1:56:54] center remains closed right now. Our Smithsonian and our National Mall. Today we had a hearing in the [1:57:03] Oversight Committee in which our Republican colleagues were ordered by the White House to hold a hearing [1:57:10] under the pretext that they are going to take out the leadership of the Smithsonian because they [1:57:14] don't like the way they're telling our history. Donald Trump has given no big contracts to his friends to [1:57:22] tear up the National Mall. And he has, as the chairman, ranking member of Natural Resources has revealed, [1:57:30] used Freedom 250 as a front for fraud and money laundering and actually diverting [1:57:39] private donations from corporations like Oracle, Lockheed, and yes, Palantir once again to his own [1:57:47] nonprofit. Our public lands. I'm from New Mexico. Our most sacred public lands include places like Chaco [1:57:59] Canyon and Bears Ears in Utah. Places that are completely irreplaceable, sacred to the tribes all across our [1:58:08] state and all across the West. And this president has just announced that he is going to revoke the [1:58:14] protections as giveaways to the oil and gas industry and to uranium miners in Utah. This is not just about [1:58:26] defacing our American monuments. This is not just about his ego. Donald Trump is using the American taxpayer [1:58:36] dollars as a personal piggy bank. He is defacing our most sacred places. And he is doing it for just [1:58:44] everyday grift to make himself and his friends rich. In fact, we know because of his own financial [1:58:54] disclosures that he made over $2 billion last year in crypto schemes, real estate deals. And I just learned [1:59:02] today by more insider trading on the stock market than any, all of the members of Congress combined [1:59:11] last year. We think we have insider trading problems here in Congress. Donald Trump made more trades than [1:59:18] all of Congress last year while a sitting president. And so we want to make clear, loud and clear on these [1:59:27] bicameral committees that we will investigate. Where possible, we will refer to prosecute. We will recover [1:59:37] damages. We will get the American people's money back. And we will save our democracy just as the heroes on [1:59:45] this panel today are here to do. Thank you, Congresswoman. I will now recognize myself. [2:00:00] The Trump regime is the most corrupt in American history. The corrupt authoritarian wannabe king, [2:00:10] Donald Trump, is selling off America's national monuments, all so that he can turn the White House [2:00:17] into his own version of Versailles and so that he can turn Washington DC into his own personal playground. [2:00:24] And I want to talk about the context in which he is doing all of this. Last year, Trump and Republicans [2:00:31] very happily and excitedly ripped away health care from millions and millions of Americans. It was the [2:00:37] most unprecedented cut to Medicaid and food assistance in American history. Then Donald Trump decided to [2:00:45] cover up the Epstein files. And now we have Todd Blanche in front of the Judiciary Committee in the [2:00:50] Senate. And he is about to maybe become the Attorney General of the United States as he has led [2:00:56] the most egregious cover up in American history. And then Donald Trump also decided to start an illegal [2:01:02] reckless war. This last week, a 19 year old woman named Isabella Gonzalez was killed, an American service [2:01:10] member, was killed in a war for nothing, for absolutely nothing. ICE has murdered 11 Americans on our streets. [2:01:20] And just in the last week, we lost a 52 year old and a father named Lorenzo Salgado Arajo, as well as a 26 year old [2:01:30] father named Joan Sebastian Guerrero. These are murders that should never have happened. [2:01:37] And I bring all of this up because when you contrast all of the horrific things that Donald Trump and [2:01:44] Republicans are doing, quite literally killing thousands upon thousands of people with the [2:01:52] corruption, the staggering corruption that is occurring at the White House and, you know, corruption that is [2:01:59] benefiting Trump himself, his family, his donors, it's enraging. I mean, it's actually sick. And we, as Democrats, [2:02:10] and hopefully in the future with Republicans, need to investigate every single piece of corruption that [2:02:16] has taken place. And we have to prosecute people for their crimes. Ranking members Garcia, Huffman, and I [2:02:22] wrote to the president back in October regarding his obscene demolition of the East Wing. [2:02:28] We stated that this demolition of an iconic symbol of democracy run by and for the people is slated to [2:02:34] be fund funded by major donations from billionaires and corporations. There was this lavish White House [2:02:41] dinner, of course, we've talked about it donors enjoying this extravagant meal of beef Wellington [2:02:47] and butterscotch ice cream with pear jam filled meringue to discuss how to bankroll Donald Trump's luxury [2:02:55] ballroom and other vanity projects. Some of the people at that dinner were powerful lobbyists, [2:03:00] dozens of whom are now under investigation for their ethical misconduct in supporting these luxury Trump [2:03:07] projects. We demanded a list of every donor, how much they've contributed in any access, favors, contracts, [2:03:14] or decisions that they expected from the federal government in return. It took nearly five months to [2:03:19] get a response from this administration. And when they finally did respond, they answered essentially [2:03:24] none of our questions about one of the most brazen corruption schemes being run by the White House. [2:03:31] Maybe they did not want to admit that ballroom donors later receive roughly 50 billion dollars worth of [2:03:37] federal government contracts. That's quite a return on investment. These mega corporations made back nearly 100 [2:03:45] times every cent that they funneled to Donald Trump's 600 million dollar ballroom. If that's not pay-to-play [2:03:54] corruption, then what is? And then there's this guy. You saw him earlier. He's back up here. John Carafo, [2:04:03] a twice convicted felon. He somehow received a 1.74 million dollar no-bid contract to maintain the Lincoln [2:04:13] memorial reflecting pool. How did somebody with those qualifications land a no-bid federal contract? [2:04:21] Well, he donated more than $300,000 to Donald Trump's political operation. It's that simple. This is [2:04:29] exactly what corruption looks like. This is not government serving the American people. It is [2:04:35] government serving Donald Trump's donors, Donald Trump's family, and Donald Trump. And it's sickening. [2:04:42] Mr. Gollinger, I'd like to start with you. Can you give us your best sense of the scale and scope of [2:04:47] the compromised ethical standards and theft of taxpayer dollars we are seeing throughout the federal [2:04:53] government? The scale and scope? I mean, it's massive. This looks like, smells like, and I think is a [2:05:04] pay-to-play scheme from top to bottom. So everyone associated with everything you just mentioned has a lot to [2:05:10] answer for, to the American people, to Congress, I hope, and potentially to prosecutors. If there [2:05:17] is evidence that conversations were had, whether even if they were on signal chats that they think [2:05:23] disappeared forever, but maybe didn't, or on some other method around why they were going to these [2:05:32] dinners, why they were giving this money, what they wanted, who they wanted to meet. I mean, I've heard [2:05:36] that some of the fundraisers involved have done a lot more than just raise money, that they've arranged [2:05:42] meetings, they've merged interests and money into one thing. I mean, that's the very definition of [2:05:49] pay-to-play. So we need the evidence to make sure we can tease it out, but that's what investigations are [2:05:53] for. And I found in my experience investigating public corruption that it takes a long time, and you've [2:05:59] got to get the documents. But once people realize that they're caught, some people start to talk. [2:06:04] And so I think it's incumbent upon everyone involved in anything shady to start talking now and get [2:06:10] ahead of it, rather than wait until they're the ones in the chair. And in a future administration, [2:06:15] how might that investigation play out? What could the Department of Justice or the White House do? [2:06:20] Sure. I mean, certainly Congress has got to play a big role. Inspectors General have to play a big role. [2:06:27] I mean, the Department of Justice, obviously, the public corruption unit needs to be rebuilt. [2:06:30] But U.S. Attorney's offices in every state. There's a lot of good people, I imagine, [2:06:34] who still work in all of those places, and a lot of great people who would be happy to get hired back [2:06:38] up. What it has to begin with is witness interviews, knocking on doors, inviting people in, [2:06:45] asking people to talk about what they know, document requests. And if they don't get the documents [2:06:51] voluntarily, search warrants, subpoenas. That can include communication records, financial records. [2:06:57] I mean, money has to go through unless it's a bag of cash. I mean, even if it's a bag of cash, [2:07:02] someone can take a picture of a bag of cash. But if it's money that's gone through financial [2:07:07] transactions, there is a record, even if that record people think will never be found. I found [2:07:12] bank accounts that the people who I prosecuted thought no one would ever figure out were routed [2:07:17] through banks in Chicago when they lived in San Francisco, but we found it. So records exist, [2:07:23] they just need to be found. Thank you very much. And I know we're over time. Really quickly, [2:07:27] to all of our witnesses, on a scale of one to 10, how would you rate the level of corruption [2:07:31] Donald Trump has authorized, encouraged, and participated in the federal government? And I [2:07:36] will say that 10 would be Putin level kleptocracy, and one would be the most ethical administration [2:07:42] you can imagine. We'll start with Ambassador. 11. I'll say 11. I haven't dealt with corruption [2:07:54] before, so I'm going to abstain from answering this. Can't imagine much more. No number high [2:08:02] enough off the charts. Thank you. And with that, I'm going to recognize Representative Bell. I'd like [2:08:11] to start just by putting ourselves in the shoes of a working family in St. Louis right now. Since [2:08:18] President Trump took office, families are paying $310 more a year for groceries, $622 more for housing, [2:08:28] and $110 more for electricity. The price of gas has jumped by over a dollar nationally, [2:08:36] a direct consequence of an unpopular, unauthorized war in Iran that has no clear end goal. An economist [2:08:44] project this administration's tariffs will cost the average household another $960 this year. [2:08:52] That's not just a statistic. That's a young mother in North County deciding between the energy bill [2:08:59] and new shoes for her kids. That's a retired postal worker in St. Louis, in South St. Louis, [2:09:05] watching their fixed income by less every single month. A North City father already working two jobs, [2:09:12] deciding if he can fill up his gas tank or if he needs to skip a meal. And while families do that math [2:09:19] at their kitchen tables, President Trump has spent nearly four out of every five days in June talking [2:09:25] about his vanity construction projects in Washington, D.C. That's more often than he's talked about [2:09:32] health care, wages, or the cost of living crisis he created. That tells you everything about this [2:09:38] administration's priorities. And it's not just where his attention goes, it's where the money goes [2:09:45] and how it how it gets there. This administration has made a habit of funneling these projects through [2:09:51] friends, donors, and insiders instead of the open competitive process that's supposed to protect [2:09:58] taxpayers. That's a system built to reward loyalty over accountability. The result is exactly what you'd [2:10:06] expect. Rushed, sloppy work that has to be redone, monuments in public spaces, treated like personal [2:10:14] property, and a bill that keeps growing while my constituents in St. Louis are told to tighten their [2:10:20] belts. Mr. Gollinger, you've looked closely at how this administration has financed and awarded [2:10:28] contracts for these projects. In plain terms, can you walk us through the pattern you found, who benefits, [2:10:35] and why bypassing the normal competitive contracting process, why this should worry taxpayers? [2:10:41] Mr. I think that's a good question. No big contracts have been discussed a lot today. Certainly, [2:10:46] intuitively, I think many people, maybe most, understand that that means done in a way that's [2:10:52] going to cost us more money and going to potentially engender corruption. But I think it's important to [2:10:57] walk through it a little bit more. I think this was mentioned earlier, the Washington Post [2:11:01] unearthed documents from the executive residents of the White House, which is traditionally a small [2:11:07] office in the White House that keeps the White House running. These are the people who make sure the [2:11:12] the art is protected, make sure the building is kept up to speed, the windows are repaired, [2:11:16] and the president has what he or she needs to do their job. The executive residents of the White House [2:11:23] and the offices associated with it have been turned into the Donald Trump Vanity Project corruption [2:11:29] machine. And specifically, the ballroom, that is the office under Joshua Fisher, who's the director of [2:11:36] administration, assistant to the president. All the money for the ballroom has been given to [2:11:43] charity, to the Park Service, and then back to that office. But the Washington Post reported that [2:11:47] documents all the way back in August, long before anyone of us knew their plan was to demolish the East [2:11:52] Wing, with Clark construction, no bid contracts were awarded by Donald Trump and the folks in that office [2:11:58] to Clark construction without going out to bid. So that means that no other developer, no other [2:12:04] construction company got a chance to offer the same services for less price. Obviously it means [2:12:09] the American people didn't know what they were planning to do, so they did it in secrecy. They [2:12:12] invoked an unusual and compelling urgency exception. So there's rules, I know you all know, but there's [2:12:18] federal rules to require competitive bids unless there's an exception. The exception they invoked [2:12:24] is that it's unusual, compelling urgency that without no bid contract, the government would be [2:12:29] seriously injured, that there was a compelling need. What was it that Donald Trump wanted it, [2:12:34] apparently? So that's a legislative space where Congress, the next Congress, can close that loophole [2:12:39] and make sure the executive residents can't give out no bid contracts. And if they do invoke exceptions [2:12:44] like that, they have to sit here and explain why. Thank you. And Ambassador Eisen, you spent your [2:12:49] career studying government ethics when the American people can't tell the difference between the [2:12:55] president's personal interests and the government's priorities. What does that do to their trust in [2:13:00] the institution? It demolishes trust in our institutions and the officials who lead them. When I was the [2:13:10] ethics czar in the Obama White House, we decided that President Obama wouldn't even refinance [2:13:19] his modest family home in Chicago at the time of the Great Recession because he regulated the banks. [2:13:28] We didn't like the way it looked. It would have saved him a couple hundred bucks a month. [2:13:33] The flip side of that erosion of trust, Congressman, is when you see that political leaders are putting [2:13:39] the public interest first, it builds trust and makes our American democratic experiment work. [2:13:48] Working families in St. Louis play by the rules and live within their means. It's time the [2:13:54] administration did the same. And Congresswoman Beatty, thank you for your work. I yield back. [2:14:01] Thank you. I'll now recognize Congressman Menifee. [2:14:07] Thank you very much. And Congressman Beatty, I just want to echo everybody's sentiments about [2:14:12] the fight that you endured on behalf of the Kennedy Center and on behalf of the American people. I want to [2:14:19] be the first person to say that President Trump's attempts to remake all of these institutions and [2:14:27] his likeness is incredibly tacky. Congresswoman Beatty, one thing that struck me was in your lawsuit, [2:14:38] when the government argued that changing the name was necessary to revitalize the center, which would go [2:14:44] into financial and structural collapse unless they attached the Trump name to it. I wonder if the government [2:14:50] was aware of Trump stakes and Trump University. In my home time of Houston, like in many other places [2:14:57] across this country, families are struggling to make ends meet. They can't afford their first home. [2:15:01] They can't afford the cost of utilities. Many can't afford summer camp for their kids. So it's hard to [2:15:07] watch this president spend a billion dollars in volume rooms on gold trim and on fonts for a Trump center, [2:15:15] while telling the rest of us that there's no money left. There are no kings in America, [2:15:20] and the American people didn't sign up to personally fund one man's vanity projects. [2:15:26] I want to start with you, Mr. Gullinger. In April, the administration handed out two no-bid contracts, [2:15:33] no competition, no public bidding process to clean and repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. [2:15:39] One contract worth $1.7 million went to a company owned by this gentleman that we've talked about, [2:15:44] Mr. Carfaro, who has pled guilty in 2010 to campaign finance violations and had previously [2:15:50] pled guilty to conspiring to bribe a federal official. And we all know that he's given big money [2:15:55] to President Trump's campaign. Weeks after that cleanup was finished, the pool turned green with one [2:16:00] of the biggest algae blooms in years, and the fresh blue paint started peeling and floating on the [2:16:05] surface. Now, I've got five years in local government serving as the county attorney for the largest [2:16:10] county in Texas as the chief civil lawyer 10 years before that and doing investigations for large [2:16:15] companies. I have never in all of my time seen a no-bid contract handed to somebody with a bribery [2:16:22] conviction. So my question to you is in your work tracking government contracts, and I know you have [2:16:27] some experience in local government as well. How often does the government hand a no-bid confidential [2:16:32] contract to someone with a bribery conviction? It's a very bad idea. I mean, I certainly would say [2:16:38] in San Francisco where I worked, that was a deal breaker, obviously, immediately. The line is, [2:16:47] the only line would be if someone is accused, people have the right to defend themselves. But [2:16:53] that doesn't appear to be the case here. And the problem, of course, is that the, at minimum, [2:16:57] the public faith that this contract was done properly and effectively and that most of the money is [2:17:03] going to actually do the job instead of back into someone's pocket is completely eroded. And so that [2:17:07] that should be absolutely, that should be something that absolutely never happens again. [2:17:12] The, all of the incentives are eroded. And if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, [2:17:17] it's probably a duck. Ambassador Eisen, we are kindred spirits. You've talked a lot about [2:17:23] all of your litigation experience against the Trump administration. In my last job, I spent a bunch of [2:17:28] time litigating and beating the Trump administration because their lawyers are not good. But I want to talk to [2:17:36] you about the rule of law and institutions in this country and the role that they play in holding this [2:17:41] administration accountable. We have seen action after action taken against the Trump administration [2:17:46] because they have stepped outside of the bounds of the constitution and the law. From layoffs of [2:17:51] federal employees to what we've seen at the Kennedy Center, the reversal of the plain text of the [2:17:57] constitution and birthright citizenship, cuts of grants, grant funds, which impacted local governments and [2:18:03] nonprofits across this country. And of course, the firing of Fed Governor Lisa Cook. This is [2:18:08] just a few of the list of things. How important are the courts in ensuring that we keep a rogue [2:18:16] president within the confines of the constitution and the laws of this nation? [2:18:20] We were very honored at Democracy Defenders to help put together the team to serve as part of the team [2:18:27] that defended Dr. Cook up to and including the Supreme Court, winning at the Supreme Court. It was a [2:18:34] bipartisan team protecting her and the Federal Reserve, the independence of our nation's monetary policy [2:18:44] and the prosperity of every American. The courts were essential in that case, Congressman, as they have been [2:18:54] in our over 300 matters, well over 600 cases that courts have addressed. And in particular, I want to salute [2:19:08] the trial courts of the country. We just had a tremendous win in front of it. A judge who was appointed [2:19:17] by Donald Trump, but he quashed a subpoena. You know how hard it is to do that. He quashed a Trump [2:19:24] administration subpoena unduly interfering with election processes in Fulton County, Georgia. And so [2:19:33] our trial judges have been absolutely essential. We've been keeping them busy. One said to me from the [2:19:40] bench, we can't do our job unless you do yours. So we try, we're going to keep these cases coming. And in [2:19:48] particular, we're going to protect this election. It all comes down to that, the future of our democracy. [2:19:55] We're going to defend it. In closing, Madam Chairwoman, there are three [2:19:59] co-equal branches of government. And when the president steps out of line, you need the other two [2:20:03] to step in. So I'm so grateful for the folks who have been involved in ensuring that the courts step in. [2:20:08] But it's time for Congress to do its job and for the Republican members of Congress to exercise their [2:20:13] authority to investigate and hold this administration accountable. You're back, Madam Chairwoman. [2:20:18] Thank you. And finally, I will recognize Congresswoman Tlaib. [2:20:21] Thank you all so much for being here. And I know, Congresswoman Beattie, that you might not [2:20:28] feel comfortable constantly us thanking you, but thank you so much for your courage. I know you were [2:20:33] tenacious and determined and we are very grateful for you. And of course, all the folks at Kennedy and [2:20:39] those that helped, again, organize and push back against the administration. So I want to play a [2:20:47] little game, since he likes games too. I want to talk about what did Trump say it would cost? Game. [2:20:55] Okay. Yeah, Ambassador, this is going to be fun. Because I, you know why? Because they constantly [2:21:01] come to me when we talk about health care, food assistance, all these programs, waste and fraud, [2:21:08] waste and fraud, waste and fraud. I want to talk about what did Trump say it would cost? Lincoln [2:21:12] Memorial Reflecting Pool. Does anybody know how much he said it was going to cost us? 1.5 to 1.8 [2:21:20] million. You know, Congresswoman, how much it's going to cost? It's already at $16 million. I want [2:21:25] the American people to understand. Okay. Second, Ballroom said, oh, it's going to cost us $200 million. [2:21:32] It's our money, y'all. $200 million. He says private folks, but guess what? It's not. He's pocketing that [2:21:37] money. The Ballroom, $200 million. Guess how much it is now? A succeeding $1 billion. The 200-foot [2:21:46] tall ARC. I don't know what the hell he calls it, but it's an ARC. How much initial cost? They're [2:21:51] saying $100 million. Experts say it's going to cost a lot more. These are architects. These are folks that [2:21:57] do this kind of work. And on top of that, there's all these lawsuits because the ARC is, I guess, [2:22:03] exceeds the height limitation. This is ridiculous. Talk about waste. Now to talk about golf courses. [2:22:10] You know anything about that, Ambassador? What the hell is going on with the golf course? I think [2:22:14] the American people need to know. He wants to take 50 acres of public land, a bike trail, [2:22:22] historic grove of cherry trees to put a freaking golf course. Talk about waste. Do you know about the [2:22:29] golf course? A little bit, yes. Who benefits from the golf course? Well, right now, as you know, [2:22:36] Congresswoman, families, children play with their parents, the grandparents. He's going to turn it [2:22:43] into a Trump Country Club-style golf course that average folks can't afford to play. It's incredibly [2:22:50] sickening. I mean, I think, you know, and I know my colleagues know this. We go to our communities. I mean, [2:22:56] to quote a Detroiter. I'm from Detroit. You know, my seniors just tell it like it is. What the hell is [2:23:01] he doing with our money? Why aren't you guys stopping them? No, I'm being serious. And I tell [2:23:06] them this is pretty unprecedented, the incredible amount of fraud that Republican leadership and [2:23:11] those around him continue to allow him to commit. You know, when I talk to folks about, you know, [2:23:22] everybody talks about him filing bankruptcy with his hotels and casinos. But no, really, how many times do [2:23:27] you think he filed bankruptcy? Once? Twice? Six times. Six times he filed bankruptcy. And he's in [2:23:36] charge of our public money. I mean, we're going to push back. We're going to use litigation as [2:23:41] resistance. We all know that. But at the end, I think it's really important how painful it is to [2:23:47] watch the American people. It's very painful for them to watch 15% cut to SNAP benefits, telling them [2:23:53] they don't have money for clean water. Yet, you see all these projects again, over and over again, [2:23:59] my colleagues come to us and say it's going to cost this or cost that. I really appreciate everyone [2:24:05] being here. I appreciate this hearing. I think at the end, though, and if anybody has advice, I mean, [2:24:10] at the end, I think it's what do we do on day one when we get the gavel back? And we need to be very [2:24:16] aggressive about it from day one. What do we do? Because I don't want to just get the gavel back. That power [2:24:23] means something for our people. They're giving us a chance to be able to get accountability and [2:24:29] justice. So day one, what do we do? Ambassador? I would focus on the biggest grifts and go deep. [2:24:40] Get every witness. Let people know you're focusing on the at the contrarian where I'm the publisher. [2:24:48] We have a top 10 corruption list that we update every couple months. [2:24:54] The temptation, Congresswoman, is to go very broad because there's so many hundreds, [2:25:01] thousands of examples. I also want to prevent it. I want to think of ways of how we can prevent it. [2:25:05] But I think if we can focus on those and then learn the prevention lessons. [2:25:10] I didn't know emoluments calls is in there, but there's no enforcement mechanism to the emoluments [2:25:16] clause. Mr. Gallagher. Well, I was going to say, [2:25:18] I, uh, there's no better enforcement mechanism than a perp walk. If corporate executives. [2:25:25] I like that. I like you. That's very good. [2:25:27] Are discovered engaging in pay to play, uh, corruption, uh, are walked in front of the cameras, [2:25:32] first of all, to a hearing room. Um, and then if they committed a crime, um, to the courtroom, [2:25:37] that's the best attorney of all. Mr. Chauncey. I may mention the parks and my comments here. Um, [2:25:46] I'm just an ordinary person and thank you all for having me here, but, um, funding to the park service [2:25:51] is incredibly important. Rehiring all those vacant positions and the folks that were fired in the past [2:25:55] year and improving veteran and military access to nature and outdoor recreation opportunities. [2:25:59] That's what I would do on day one. Yeah. Restoration. I like that. Mr. Folds. [2:26:02] Well, since I'm here is my experience in the Kennedy Center, I would say we, we, uh, we need a firewall [2:26:09] from now on, uh, that is, uh, indestructible between the president of the United States and, [2:26:15] uh, our arts. Yeah. Congresswoman Beatty's got that. How about you, Congresswoman? [2:26:20] I would say all of the above, but I would overturn all of the executive orders that hurt the people. [2:26:26] I would make sure that when we talk about restoring, whether it's the dollars to SNAP you meant, [2:26:31] child care, housing, and the affordable care act. Yeah. Thank you all so much. I yield. [2:26:37] Thank you. Thank you, Congresswoman. Uh, appreciate all of our colleagues from [2:26:42] the house being here today. I want to express my appreciation, especially to [2:26:47] Congressman Garcia for his leadership, uh, and to all of our witnesses. This panel has been amazing [2:26:55] to everybody watching here or remotely. Thank you for caring about our democracy. Uh, and I just come [2:27:02] back to where I began. Corruption has costs. Corruption has costs in money that's taken from [2:27:13] taxpayers spent on these projects wastefully, and there needs to be accountability. Uh, the construction [2:27:23] has destroyed iconic symbols of America, the reflecting pool being only one of them. And the contracts are [2:27:35] the symbol of this corruption, no bid, single source contracts with pals of the president, donors to [2:27:45] his campaign, pay to play. And of course we need to somehow repair the damage if we can. We can't [2:27:56] reconstruct the East wing. It's gone, but we can at least insist on accountability. And we can also [2:28:08] work for reforms of the system that prevent it hopefully in the future. And in the meantime, the [2:28:17] perp walk is an option, but name and shame, even without charges necessarily civil action to recover [2:28:31] money and impose penalties when there is favoritism or ethical violation. There's no ethics czar in the [2:28:41] white house on the side of ethics right now. The czar is unethical. So, um, I want to thank everyone [2:28:53] involved in this hearing. We're going to pursue these issues hopefully with subpoena power and other [2:29:00] compulsory process at some point, but one way or the other, the American people deserve the facts, [2:29:08] documents, evidence, testimony, and we're beginning now. Thank you all. This hearing is adjourned. [2:29:17] In 2025, we've had the worst measles outbreak in over a decade, more than