Donald Trump overcharged Secret Service agents who protected him and his family for rooms at his Washington hotel while he was president, a new report from House Democrats alleges.
Trump also benefited from foreign and domestic officials, including people seeking jobs in his administration or pardons from him, who paid for rooms at the then-Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington, according to the report, which was obtained by NBC News.
The allegations are part two of an investigation by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee into the financial benefits Trump received while in office, or, as the party puts it, Trump’s efforts to enrich himself, often at the expense of taxpayer.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Democrats’ findings. A spokeswoman for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., called the report “more recycled waste from Democrats’ fruitless and nearly decade-long investigation into President Trump.”
“Unlike the Bidens, the Trumps actually own businesses and made money from the services they provided,” Comer’s spokeswoman said.
The new report is limited in scope and based on spending data at Trump’s Washington hotel during just 11 months of his presidency — from September 2017 to August 2018 — that the panel obtained after a lengthy lawsuit over subpoenas to Trump’s former accounting records Corporation. company Mazars.
Still, Democrats say it offers insight into the ways Trump used the Oval Office to fill his private company’s coffers and curry favor with foreign governments and people seeking access and benefits from Trump’s government.
First, the report accuses the Trump Corporation of inflating the prices of hotel rooms at the Secret Service property, in some cases up to 300% more than the government’s approved daily rate and more than what other guests were charged. for rooms on the same nights.
The report specifically points to Nov. 28, 2017, when the Secret Service paid $600 each for several rooms for agents guarding Trump’s son Eric and his wife Lara. Records show that on the same night, more than 80 rooms at the Trump hotel were rented for less than $600 per night.
In addition to the fees paid by the Secret Service, Democratic investigators say eight U.S. ambassadors, three people appointed by Trump as federal judges, two state governors, a state legislative delegation and a Trump Cabinet secretary were in the Trump hotel and spent money while serving as state or federal officials during the 11-month period the commission investigated.
One of these was Kelly Craft, whom Trump appointed as US ambassador to Canada and later as ambassador to the United Nations. Craft booked 20 nights at the Trump hotel over an eleven-month period, spending nearly $30,000. The report shows communications in May 2018 between Craft, who was then ambassador to Canada, and her staff, who offered her several hotel options ahead of an upcoming conference she planned to attend at National Harbor, in Maryland. But emails obtained by the committee from the State Department show that she insisted she stay at the Trump hotel.
Democrats also found that four people Trump nominated for ambassadorial posts, four people who served as Trump administration officials or on federal commissions or boards, one person he nominated to a federal judgeship and five people he ultimately pardoned stayed at his hotel during the 11-month period.
Among the pardon seekers was Albert Pirro, the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who spent more than $2,000 on at least four stays at the Trump hotel in 2018, according to the committee. Pirro was convicted of federal conspiracy and tax evasion in 2000 and received one of several pardons issued by Trump just before leaving office. The committee does not allege that Pirro overpaid for his stay and notes that Trump once kept him on retainer as a real estate lawyer.
In total, the panel examined $300,000 in payments received by the Trump Corporation over more than 11 months that Democrats say violate the Constitution’s emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from receiving compensation from foreign or domestic governments, including states, outside the official presidential salary. .
However, the Constitution does not provide a remedy or clear penalty for violations of the emoluments clause, and Trump has frequently tested his limits during his time in office. He originally planned to hold meetings around the 2020 Group of Seven summit at his Doral golf resort in Florida, but changed course amid research into how his private company would benefit from the event. Trump expressed frustration at having to move the event, telling reporters at a Cabinet meeting that he “blamed you people for this bogus emoluments clause.”
Democrats would have liked a fuller picture of spending at Trump’s hotel, but Republicans did not continue their Trump investigation after taking control of the House of Representatives in 2022 and subpoenaing Democrats from Mazars and others had withdrawn.
“While this is an exceedingly small window into the opaque web of more than 500 corporations, limited liability companies and trusts that Donald Trump carried into his presidency,” the report says, “it is sufficient to reveal hundreds of unconstitutional and ethically sound cases to bring to light. suspicious payments he accepted during his time in office from domestic sources, including a federal agency, numerous federal and state officials, and individuals who sought and often obtained federal office and presidential pardons.
Trump has also faced several lawsuits accusing him of violating the clause, but the courts have dismissed them for various reasons. The new report doesn’t even directly suggest punishment for Trump, but instead encourages Congress to write tough legislation that would define clear penalties for officeholders who violate the emoluments clause.
“The findings of these Democratic staff reports reveal significant flaws in the current federal anti-corruption framework – flaws that Donald Trump has exploited for millions of dollars and that he plans to exploit again if he is returned to the Oval Office,” the authors write of the report. to write. “As such, these reports are urgent calls to action that Congress must heed to ensure the effective enforcement of the Domestic Emoluments Clause of the Constitution – as well as the Foreign Emoluments Clause – and to ensure that our government exclusively promotes the public interests of the serves the people, rather than the private interests of the president.”
Democrats on the Oversight Committee released the first part of their report in January; it revealed that Trump’s private companies received at least $7.8 million from foreign entities during his presidency.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
