Menéndez Probes Ambassador to India Over Don Jr.’s Trip

Senator Bob Menéndez (D-NJ), the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to U.S. Ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster, raising a series of questions and concerns around Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to India this week to promote real estate projects on behalf of the Trump Organization. “Given the potential to confuse Mr. Trump’s private business visit with having an official governmental purpose, I write to ensure that the U.S. Embassy presence in India will have no role in supporting Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization during his time in India, other than that necessary to provide any security support for the U.S. Secret Service,” wrote Menéndez. “I expect that the U.S. State Department, including U.S. Embassy Delhi, will treat Mr. Trump no differently than it would any other American individual visiting on private business, and will take every effort to avoid any perception of special treatment or a conflict of interest.” Listing a series of questions to be answered by the end of the week on the plans for the U.S. Embassy and U.S. consulates in India around Donald Trump Jr.’s business trip, Menéndez also raised concerns about his scheduled speech on Indo-Pacific relations at the Global Business Summit in Delhi on Friday. There are numerous Trump projects in India. There are buildings with the Trump name in Pune, a city of about three million people near Mumbai. Other projects are underway in Kolkata; Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi; and Mumbai. Prices for the luxury apartments range from $780,000 to $1.6 million. Read the full letter here.