REUTERS/Alberto Lowe
Attorneys for the Trump Organization asked Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela for help in their fight for control of a luxury hotel in Panama City, the Associated Press reported Monday. Last month, police ordered the Trump management team to leave the waterfront property, and the hotel’s name was changed to Bahia Grand Panama. In a March 22 letter to Varela, which doesn’t mention President Donald Trump by name, the company’s lawyers said they recognize the “the separation of powers” in Panama, but still asked for assistance in getting the eviction reversed. An emergency arbitrator ultimately decided not to reinstate the Trump management team, according to the AP. “It is a letter that urges Panama’s executive branch to interfere in an issue clearly of the judicial branch,” Panama Foreign Secretary Isabel de Saint Malo told the AP. “I don’t believe the executive branch has a position to take while the issue is in the judicial process.” Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, called it the “clearest example we’ve seen of a conflict of interest stemming from the president’s role as head of state in connection with other countries and his business interests.”