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Donald Trump charged Secret Service agents protecting him while he was president “far more” than other hotel guests, a new report by House Democrats claims.
Democrats in the House Oversight Committee investigating how Trump benefited from his time in the White House assessed guest logs from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC during an 11-month period from September 2017 through August 2018.
The report, released on Friday, says that the hotel at times charged the agency more than 300 per cent or more than the authorized government rate.
The records make clear that the “then-President Trump treated the Secret Service as an ATM,” the Democrats allege.
During the 11-month timeframe, the Secret Service paid for more than 200 rooms at the former president’s hotel on approximately 50 separate nights — they were overcharged for at least 49 of those rooms, the panel said.
“Not only did President Trump’s hotel often charge the Secret Service far more than authorized federal government rates, the hotel also charged the agency far more than hundreds of other patrons, including members of a foreign royal family and a Chinese business interest,” the Democrats on the panel wrote.
For instance, on November 28, 2017, the Secret Service paid a room rate of $600 per night at the hotel. But that same day, the hotel rented out more than 80 rooms at rates less than $600 per room, including to a China-based coal company, which rented out rooms for $338.85 apiece.
The House Democrats accused Trump of violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which prohibits a president from receiving gifts from foreign or domestic governments, including states, other than a salary.
“In order to fulfill its duties, the Secret Service must, of course, maintain physical proximity to its protectees at all times,” the report says. “Thus, whenever former President Trump or his family members—or foreign heads of state who were paying former President Trump constitutionally prohibited foreign emoluments—stayed at a Trump-owned or branded property, as Donald Trump usually insisted, the Secret Service rented rooms at those same properties.”
Additionally, the report states that 16 state and federal officials stayed at the hotel: eight ambassadors, two state governors, three people Trump appointed to serve as federal judges, one delegation from a state legislature, and two other executive branch officials, including a cabinet secretary.
Kelly Knight Craft, who Trump appointed to serve as US Ambassador to Canada from 2017 through 2019 and US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2019 through 2021, was a “hotel regular” during this period. While serving as Ambassador to Canada, she spent nearly $30,000 at the Trump property — including one night in 2017 when she and her husband booked a room for $10,000 per night.
“Moreover, emails released by the State Department make clear that not only did Ms Craft have a strong preference for staying at Donald Trump’s Hotel, even when options that were more conveniently located were available, but she actively ‘Steered US Government Business to Her Boss’ Hotel,’ the report says.
There were also 14 individuals who “sought…plum appointments or presidential pardons” who stayed at the DC hotel, the report says. That group included four individuals who were nominated to be US ambassadors — three of whom were confirmed — four individuals who served as Trump Administration officials or on a federal commission or board, one person who was nominated to be a federal judge, and five people who received pardons from Trump.
Kellyanne Conway was one of the four Trump administration officials who stayed at the hotel. On January 18, 2017, ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Conway booked a room, racking up more than $17,000 in charges, the report says.
The Democrats wrote: “This report highlights how a glimpse through a narrow window—11 months of records from a single Trump- owned hotel—is enough to identify more than $300,000 in payments he accepted that raise the appearance of corruption and pay-to-play.”
They added that more than half of these payments, totaling nearly $175,000, “may have directly violated — or, in the case of Secret Service expenditures, definitely violated” the emoluments clause.
The report reveals “significant shortcomings in the current federal anti-corruption framework—shortcomings that Donald Trump exploited to the tune of millions of dollars and intends to exploit again if he is returned to the Oval Office,” the Democrats wrote.
“As such, these reports are urgent calls to action that Congress must heed to ensure the effective enforcement of the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause—as well as the Foreign Emoluments Clause—and to ensure that our government serves exclusively the public interests of the people rather than the private interests of the president.”
Not only does this report come less than one month before Trump faces Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, but it also comes months after Democrats on the committee released a similar report in January.
It revealed that Trump earned nearly $8 million from foreign governments in the first two years of his presidency, based on accounting from just four of his nearly 500 entities around the world.
At the time, he defended himself, telling Fox News: “People were staying in these massive hotels, these beautiful hotels, and they stayed there and they paid. I don’t get $8m for doing nothing.”
The Independent has reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment.
