According to bills seen by the Committee, federal employees paid up to five times the budgeted rate for one night’s stay. There are more and more documents that show how the Trump Organization benefited greatly from the presidency of Donald Trump during the tycoon’s four years in power. One of the benefits came through hosting hundreds of federal officials in the president’s properties, sometimes with “exorbitant” charges.
Although this conflict of interest has been documented before, and it was already known that the Secret Service paid a bill of 1.4 million dollars to the former president’s hotels from 2017 to 2021, Congress has seen accounting reports that generate more outrage.
On Monday, the House Oversight Committee reported that the fees charged to the Secret Service to stay at Trump hotels, and thus provide a security scheme for the president and his family when they participated in events, was totally “ excessive”. According to bills seen by the Committee, federal employees paid up to five times the budgeted rate for one night’s stay.
“The exorbitant fees being charged to the Secret Service and the agents’ frequent stays at Trump properties raise significant concerns about the personal treatment of the former president and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for the former president’s ailing businesses. Trump,” said Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York.
In one of the ledgers seen by the Oversight Committee it is found that the Secret Service was charged $1,160 for a room at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a rate that was five times higher than the 2012 budget. dollars per room for that season. This is money paid by taxpayers. Hotels offer a special government rate for federal officials, at a good discount, but this does not seem to be the case with the Trump Organization.
These records contradict information from the Trump Organization and relatives of the former president, who claimed that Trump hotels gave agents rooms at normal cost, at deep discounts or even for free.
“Any services provided to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies at Trump-owned properties were at their request and provided at cost, heavily discounted or free of charge,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. .
Eric Trump, son of the former Republican president, had stated on his own that “if my father travels, (the agents) stay at our properties for free… if they went to a hotel across the street, they would be charged $500 for night, while you know we charge them, like 50 (in ours)”.
Trump visited his estate 547 times, including 145 visits to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida and also his ongoing visits to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to an investigation by the US-based Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility. Washington. Secret Service agents were to stay with him. If the budget for a room was much less than spent, how did the Secret Service pay the bills?
“The Secret Service has been authorized additional flexibility for spending during protection missions, including per diem spending above the government rate,” Maloney said in a letter sent to the Secret Service asking for more complete information about expenses, since the panel he presides considers that the expenses could be higher than the 1.4 million that are known.
“Given longstanding concerns about the former president’s conflicts of interest and efforts to cash in on the presidency, the committee has a strong interest in obtaining a full accounting of federal government spending on Trump properties,” he wrote. Maloney.
Neither the Trump Organization nor the Secret Service have commented on this scandal.
(Taken from The Spectator)