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)

As detailed by the attorney general of New York, Letitia James, the authorities want the accused to not be able to acquire commercial real estate in the state for five years, and prevent them from receiving loans from any financial institution registered in the entity during the same period.

The 214-page lawsuit is the culmination of a three-year investigation showing that Donald Trump and his children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, allegedly used the image of wealth and opulence of the former president to make him look like a great businessman who earned millions of dollars when he was a television presenter, as well as during his presidency.

James announced the details of the lawsuit at a news conference, where she said the case was civil, not criminal, and that her office rejected settlement offers made by Trump’s attorneys.

The prosecutor stated that the “investigation revealed that Donald Trump engaged in years of illegal conduct to inflate his net worth, to deceive the banks and the people of the great state of New York.”

“Stating that you have money that you don’t have is not the art of the deal. It is the art of theft,” she maintained.

The prosecutor seeks compensation of 250 million dollars, since, according to her, this would be the approximate value of the benefits that the defendants would have obtained after using these fraudulent practices.

The objective of the alleged scheme would be to boost Trump’s image as a billionaire and the value of his properties, since by doing so he obtained several advantages: he could access favorable loan conditions with cheaper interest, pressure insurers to provide him with more comprehensive coverage at lower premiums while strengthening his image as a business strongman.

Meanwhile, the investigation also indicated that the former president and his company devalued assets on other occasions to obtain tax benefits.

The prosecuting body claims to have found evidence of falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, conspiracy acts and bank fraud. James’ office said the findings will be forwarded to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service.

The former president would have lied when he said that his apartment in Trump Tower had 2,787 square meters and not the real 1,096. Meanwhile, his valuation of Mar-a-Lago in Florida was $739 million and not the roughly $75 million he actually costs.

What is the prosecution looking for?
Letitia James, through her office, is seeking the appointment of an independent auditor for at least five years to oversee the Trump Organization’s compliance with financial reporting, appraisals, and disclosures to lenders, insurers, and tax authorities. .

Another matter that James seeks, which is allowed by federal law, is to ban the former president and the Trump Organization from making commercial real estate acquisitions and obtaining loans from New York banks for five years, as well as permanently bar the Trumps from being officials or directors of any company or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in the State of New York.

Officials of the Trump Organization, if found guilty, would be barred from exercising the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered and/or licensed in the State of New York.

In addition, the Organization will go to trial in October for a criminal proceeding. He is accused of giving tax-free perks to top executives, including CFO Weisselberg, who received $1.7 million in bonus payments.

The executive pleaded guilty on August 18 and will have to testify at trial. If the Trump Organization is found guilty, it could pay a penalty of twice the amount of the taxes it has not paid.

As Letitia James files this lawsuit, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is conducting a parallel criminal investigation into the same business practices, saying in a statement that “our criminal investigation regarding former President Donald J. Trump, the The Trump Organization and its leadership is active and ongoing.”

The former president testified in August about this case after strong pressure, although in his statement he accepted the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which allows the accused to remain silent.

From his social media platform, Truth Social, Donald Trump called the lawsuit “another witch hunt by a racist attorney general,” referring to James, a declared Democrat and African-American.

The former president called James “a fraud who campaigned on a ‘get Trump’ platform, despite the fact that the city is one of the world’s crime and murder disasters under his watch!” .

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, also lashed out at the prosecutor, accusing her of abusing her authority “by meddling in transactions in which absolutely no wrongdoing has occurred,” adding that the lawsuit “doesn’t even focus on the facts.” nor in the law, rather, is it focused solely on advancing the attorney general’s political agenda.”

The lawsuit about Trump joins various open legal proceedings against the president, who could aspire to re-election in 2024 and squeezes a pillar of the Republican Party a few weeks before the mid-term elections in November, in which this force is play the domain of Congress.

(With information from France24 and RT in Spanish)