Donald Trump is out here testing the limits of just how much scandal and legal peril one ex-president can take, as news breaks that ex-President Trump’s family company, the Trump Organization, that’s already in a heap of serious trouble from several different directions as it is, was busted by the House Oversight Committee for grossly overcharging the US Secret Service nightly hotel rates at his Trump-owned properties, on dozens of trips, according to new documents that went public today.
In a 9-page letter penned to the Secret Service by the chair of the Oversight Panel, Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York, the Democrat pressed the US government agency for more information on the matter:
The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.”
The House Oversight Committee reveals that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service hotel rates that far exceeded what is allowed by government regulations, at a time when Donald Trump’s middle son and vice-president of the family company, Eric, stayed at the Trump-owned hotel in Washington D.C. with his wife Lara. the Oversight Committee cited new documents they received from the Secret Service agency, proving at least 5 stays in which agents were charged upwards of three times the government-allowed rate.
Additional records that went public today revealed that agents were charged a staggering $1,185 a night when eldest Trump son Don Jr. stayed at the Washington Trump-owned hotel — a rate that far exceeds the government mandated per diem rate of $201 per night. The records also show that agents were charged nightly rates that were “nearly double” the mandated per diem rate during a stay at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, FL.
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The explosive revelations come as part of a larger effort on Maloney’s part to unearth answers from the US Secret Service regarding American taxpayers’ dollars that were spent at properties owned by the Trump Organization — of which is part of an even larger effort to investigate and possibly prove allegations that Donald Trump actively profited off the presidency and used his position to further benefit the Trump Organization, resulting in multiple possible conflicts of interest. As if this scandal weren’t bad enough all on its own, Maloney’s letter indicated that the records turned over by the Secret Service were an incomplete look at the extent of the government agency’s spending at Trump-owned properties.
Secret Service spokesperson Steve Kopek released a statement confirming the agency’s receipt of Maloney’s letter and said the agency “will respond directly to the committee with the requested information.”
Read the full report on the matter from Politico here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
