close
close

Solondais

Where news breaks first, every time

    • sinolod

    Trump hotel overcharged Secret Service, House Democrats report says

    Mars Posted on

    Jacqueline Alemany
    | Washington Post

    During Donald Trump’s presidency, his Washington hotel billed the U.S. Secret Service 300 percent or more above standard government rates on multiple occasions, and sometimes charged the government agency more than other guests – including a Chinese company and members of a foreign royal family. , according to a new report released Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

    The authors of the report, based on Trump International hotel room records from September 2017 and August 2018, claim that Trump violated the Constitution’s foreign and domestic emoluments clauses, which were intended to prevent the president and other federal officials to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers. .

    The House Democrats’ report cites several previously undisclosed instances in which the Trump International Hotel charged the Secret Service rates that were not only higher than the government’s normal daily rate, but also higher than rates charged to other guests. The report is based on documents Democrats obtained from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA, as well as corresponding special waivers allowing the Secret Service to make payments above normal government rates.

    When Eric Trump visited the hotel on Feb. 22, 2018, two of the rooms rented by the Secret Service were charged $895 each, or 450 percent more than the government rate, according to the report. The same evening, more than 100 rooms in this 263-room hotel were rented at rates below $895, “including at least one room rented for only $150,” the Democrats noted.

    That night, four rooms for an “extended stay of the Sheikh Al Thani family” were billed at rates far lower than those charged by the Secret Service, according to the report. The Al Thanis, a Qatari royal family, had to pay $280 for three rooms and $490 for one room.

    The Democratic report did not reveal the total number of rooms rented by the Secret Service, which is considered sensitive law enforcement information. Spokespeople for the Secret Service, the Trump campaign and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    During another visit by Eric Trump to the Washington hotel at the end of the month, on February 27, 2018, the agency paid $595 for a room, according to the report. This rate is well above the government-approved daily rate for a hotel in Washington, D.C., which is typically $195 to $240, and varies from month to month based on average lodging rates in the city . That same evening, the Al Thani family was billed for two rooms at a lower rate of $595.

    The Washington Post has widely reported on spending by the Secret Service on Trump’s properties as agents protected him and his family during his time in the White House.

    In 2022, The Post reported that American taxpayers paid Trump’s company at least $1.4 million for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump’s properties for his and his family’s protection. Receipts and invoices previously obtained by The Post highlighted not only high fees for rooms at luxury properties, but also additional charges, including a $1,300 “furniture moving fee” for services secrets in 2018 at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland.

    Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has repeatedly disputed allegations that the family business profited from Secret Service stays at Trump properties and said the company often offered Secret Service agents hotel rooms for free or at heavily discounted rates.

    However, sketchy spending records obtained by congressional investigators over the past four years have contradicted Eric Trump’s claims.

    Before Republicans took control of Congress in early 2023, Mazars had begun producing documents in response to a congressional subpoena, delivering a subset of records to the Democratic Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin ( Md.). But when Republicans took control of the House, new Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) ended the congressional investigation into Trump’s alleged violations of the Emoluments Clause , refusing to enforce a court-ordered agreement that Mazars would produce related evidence. to Trump’s business dealings.

    Despite Republican control of the House, Democrats sought to focus public attention on the emoluments issue as Trump sought to win back the presidency. Money Trump and his family businesses got from government sources while in the White House — despite his promises to “drain the swamp” — creates “an appearance of corruption and pay-to-play,” Democrats say in the report. .

    The latest findings follow a report released by the Oversight Committee’s Democratic staff earlier this year, which documented $7.8 million that Trump received from at least 20 foreign governments, including China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, through only four of its mandates. companies over a two-year period while he was president. The new report from House Democrats is based on a single set of documents provided to the committee for a single Trump property over an 11-month period, representing what Democrats say is only a fraction of the money his company brought in from the Secret Service out of four. years in power.

    The report focuses on room charges paid by the Secret Service, “which Donald Trump treated like his own government ATM, extracting exorbitant rates that his hotel charged while Secret Service agents protected him and his children and even foreign leaders,” the report. Democratic investigators claim so.

    In one such case, during a stay by Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump on November 28, 2017, room records show that the Secret Service rented several rooms at a rate of $600 – 300 percent more than the government’s standard rate of $201 that month – while a dozen rooms rented from a Chinese company, Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co., Ltd., rented for $338.85 each. According to the report, records also show that more than 80 rooms were rented that evening at rates less than $600 per room.

    Earlier that month, on November 8, 2017, two of the rooms rented by the Secret Service to accommodate a visit from Donald Trump Jr. were charged a rate of $1,185, five times the daily rate of $201. But that same evening, more than 100 rooms were rented at $125 each. According to committee investigators, 100 additional rooms were billed at the “LOC Software R2CON” conference for $170 each.

    Investigators also identified 16 examples of individuals who “made some or all of their spending at the hotel while they were federal or state officials,” including eight ambassadors, three Trump appointees for be federal judges, two governors, a state delegation. the legislative branch and two officials from the executive branch. Payments from the 16 people totaled $163,095.23 over that period.

    Documents produced by Mazars to the committee do not specify the sources of payment for the rooms, but investigators say any payments made by federal or state officials to Trump’s businesses using state or federal taxpayer funds would constitute a violation of the national emoluments clause.

    House Republicans rejected the report as misleading and outdated, criticizing Democrats for what they said was a lack of oversight by the Biden administration.

    “Ranking Member Raskin and the Democrats continue to call out their hypocrisy while suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Comer said in a statement. “Today’s report is just recycling trash from Democrats’ nearly decade-long, unsuccessful investigation into President Trump.”

    The Trump Organization sold the DC hotel to a Miami-based investment fund in 2022. Trump’s remaining portfolio of hotels and golf courses could continue to spark controversy over foreign government and corporate spending in the during a second Trump presidency. But some of his new post-presidential business ventures — like his cryptocurrency venture — could give rise to unprecedented new conflicts of interest for Trump in a second term.

    “While we still don’t know the extent of the unconstitutional payments that Trump pocketed from defrauding American taxpayers, one thing is certain: We must put in place legal barriers now to prevent the type of corruption scam that which our founding fathers so opposed. ” Raskin said in a statement.

    Mars
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like