Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (L) and Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (C) have called on the Parks Dept. to nix the Trump Organization’s license to operate a golf course in the Bronx (Photos: NYC Council (L) Facebook (C) Trump White House)
Sept. 8, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
Two Queens council members have called on the Parks Dept. to nix the Trump Organization’s license to operate a golf course in the Bronx – and to cancel a Saudi-backed women’s international golf tournament at the venue next month.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Councilmember Shekar Krishnan say that the license – which permits the Trump Organization to run the city-owned course known as Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point — should be terminated because of the group’s “consistent and documented pattern of criminal behavior.”
The scrapping of the license would also result in the cancellation of the Aramco Team Series women’s professional golf tournament at the venue in October. Adams and Krishnan have taken issue with the competition because of its ties to the Saudi Arabian government.
The lawmakers penned a letter to Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue Wednesday urging her to scrap the agreement citing reasons including last month’s guilty plea by Allen Weisselberg, the former Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organization, to 15 felony charges and for his evasion of $350,000 in taxes over 15 years. Weisselberg was charged with conspiring with the Trump Organization in the scheme.
Weisselberg, according to the lawmakers, is also listed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Trump Ferry Point LLC, which operates the golf course under the Trump Organization. They argue that Weisselberg’s crimes are a violation of the city’s license agreement with Trump Ferry Point LLC, which requires its employees to comply with all federal, state, and local laws.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty – after initially denying the charges — as part of a plea deal where he agreed to testify against The Trump Organization in a criminal case later this year.
Adams and Krishnan — who is chair of the Committee on Parks and Recreation — also flagged that upcoming criminal case, which has been brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as another reason to terminate the contract.
They argue that there are also serious questions about Weisselberg and the Trump Organization’s potential misuse of the course for private benefit – although they did not specify the details in the letter.
The Queens lawmakers wrote that former President Donald Trump’s myriad of current legal troubles – such as his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and pending lawsuits pertaining to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol in Washington – were further reasons for the Parks Dept. to ditch the agreement.
Trump is president of Trump Ferry Point LLC and the guarantor of the license agreement, according to the lawmakers.
“The cloud of legal investigations of the most serious nature surrounding Trump impedes his capacity to serve as guarantor as required by the terms of this license,” the letter reads.
“The executive officers of Trump Ferry Point LLC are either convicted of criminal charges or implicated in myriad, ongoing civil and criminal legal actions.”
They asked Donoghue to cancel the agreement, writing that the Park’s Commissioner has the absolute discretion to do so at any time after providing 25 days written notice. The City Council does not have the authority to revoke the license.
“By the upcoming hearing of the City Council’s Committee on Parks & Recreation on Sept. 15, we urge you to terminate their [Trump Ferry Point LLC’s] license agreement and bring this matter to a close,” the letter reads.
“Public parkland should not be in the hands of Donald Trump or the Trump Organization.”
The clubhouse at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point (Photo: Trump Golf Links Ferry Point Facebook page)
It is not the first time that city lawmakers have attempted to terminate the company’s license.
Former mayor Bill de Blasio moved to end the company’s contract in February 2021 following the Jan. 6 riot, but a judge ruled in April that the Trump Organization could continue to operate the golf course and found that the city had wrongly terminated the contract.
The Trump Organization had argued the city’s move to cancel the contract had no legitimate legal basis and was politically motivated. The judge did not weigh in on the political arguments. The Queens Post reached out to the Trump Organization for a response to the latest effort to oust the company from the course but has yet to receive a response.
In the Sept. 7 letter, Adams and Krishnan also voiced their concerns about the Aramco Team Series golf tournament, writing that it is an affront to the values of New York City. Fifteen of the alleged 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens and Saudi Arabian government employees have long been suspected of aiding the hijackers.
“Scheduled for October 13-15, just weeks after the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, this Saudi-backed tournament does harm to the families of 9/11 victims and offends the public memory of that horrific day,” the letter reads.
Mayor Eric Adams, who was cc’d in the letter, released a statement last week calling for the tournament to be scrapped.
“It is outrageous that the Trump Organization agreed to host a tournament with this organization while knowing how much pain it would cause New Yorkers,” Adams said.
The course at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point (Photo: Trump Golf Links Ferry Point Facebook page)
Featured Events
16 Comments
This is all a PR stunt. Won’t go anywhere. They just wanna get media attention and this is an easy way how. I just hope this doesn’t cause any unnecessary litigation that will cost tax payers money for a vanity project.
Wonder if anyone noticed trump’s name on Jamaica hospital yet lol
Well, the guy is obviously a traitor, so, yeah, get his disgusting authoritarian name off everything.
Or cart before the horse — oops
I am all for getting rid of the Trump name from as many places in NY as possible, but while I know he and the Trump Org have committed various crimes, including in NY, he and his business have not yet been found guilty. The amount of money the Trump Org will attempt to extract from NYC for violating terms of a contract will be too high to make this remotely feasible right now. Don’t put your horse before the cart, NYC Council.
yes…lets not focus on rising crime, our sluggish economic comeback, the rats and filth and homeless, the underfunded pension systems, the damage to the children from the draconian anti-science lockdowns, our rotting antiquated transit system, and the pending recession/economic crash…lets worry instead about Trump running a golf course nobody cares about. Great Job.
The guy posting under Trump Derangement is telling us to turn a blind eye to stealing top secret documents and treason. Doesn’t that make him a traitor too?
Presidents can unilaterally de-classify documents at will…there is no scandal it is just another hoax to damage a political candidate that the establishment fears…didn’t you learn anything from the Russian collusion hoax, the Ukraine phone call hoax, the phony pee tape hoax, and the unconstitutional impeachments?? You are the textbook definition of gullible.
Days after the search, Mr. Trump’s office claimed that when he was president, he had a “standing order” that materials “removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,” according to a statement read on Fox News by a right-wing writer Mr. Trump has designated as one of his representatives to the National Archives.
Apart from whether there is any evidence that such an order actually existed, the notion has been greeted with disdain by national security legal specialists. Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified — without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information — was “preposterous.”
Admin: Please stop the spread of misinformation. The above post about presidential powers is not an opinion, it’s a lie. The person posting these lies is using this site to spread propaganda. It’s easily verified. Days after the search, Mr. Trump’s office claimed that when he was president, he had a “standing order” that materials “removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them,” according to a statement read on Fox News by a right-wing writer Mr. Trump has designated as one of his representatives to the National Archives.
Apart from whether there is any evidence that such an order actually existed, the notion has been greeted with disdain by national security legal specialists. Glenn S. Gerstell, the top lawyer for the National Security Agency from 2015 to 2020, said the idea that whatever Mr. Trump happened to take upstairs each evening automatically became declassified — without logging what it was and notifying the agencies that used that information — was “preposterous.”
The claim is also irrelevant to Mr. Trump’s potential troubles over the document matter, because none of the three criminal laws cited in a search warrant as the basis of the investigation depend on whether documents contain classified information.
I guess admin is going to leave the above piece of misinformation unchecked
That’s why he’s a middle class hero right?
Or all the money laundering? They should be more specific about which of his crimes they’re protesting.
There is no reason for this other than partisan bitterness and Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Agree totally they are obsessed with trump
Or maybe it’s because Saudi Arabia was the reason thousands of Americans died on 9-11.
Thanks for not participating in this “partisan bitterness” ? Please explain the the never-Trump Republicans that they need to fall in line!