The Waldof Astoria, the previous Trump Worldwide Lodge on the Previous Put up Workplace Constructing, on Aug. 18, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Instances through Getty Imag
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Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Instances through Getty Imag
The Waldof Astoria, the previous Trump Worldwide Lodge on the Previous Put up Workplace Constructing, on Aug. 18, 2022 in Washington, D.C.
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Instances through Getty Imag
Paperwork launched by the Home Oversight and Reform Committee present extravagant spending from international leaders at former President Donald Trump’s luxurious lodge in Washington, D.C., which the committee says may have violated his oath of workplace by distorting U.S. international coverage for private monetary acquire.
Authorities officers from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the Folks’s Republic of China collectively spent over $750,000 on the Trump Worldwide Lodge throughout his presidency, based on committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and, she mentioned, did so “at delicate occasions for these international locations’ relations with the US.”
The paperwork — lodge ledgers from Trump’s former accounting agency, Mazars USA LLP — have been launched in reference to a letter Maloney despatched to the Nationwide Archives and Information Administration on Monday. That letter requested presidential information to find out whether or not Trump’s enterprise was a battle of curiosity and in violation of the Structure’s Emoluments Clauses, designed to stop corruption and international affect on federal officers.
“These paperwork sharply name into query the extent to which President Trump was guided by his private monetary curiosity whereas in workplace reasonably than the most effective pursuits of the American individuals,” Maloney mentioned. “These paperwork, which the Committee continues to acquire from Mazars, will inform our legislative efforts to make sure that future presidents don’t abuse their place of energy for private acquire.”
The paperwork launched Monday revealed that in 2017, then-Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak visited the White Home that September whereas he and members of his household have been being investigated by the Division of Justice for stealing from a Malaysian state-owned funding fund and cash laundering. The lodge receipts present that Razak and his entourage spent at the very least $259,724 on the lodge, together with on a $10,000-per-night presidential suite.
At the least $164,929 was spent in late 2017 by mid-2018 by authorities officers from Saudi Arabia and the UAE when the 2 nations have been isolating Qatar, a U.S. ally, for allegedly supporting terrorism, which Qatar denied. Trump accredited a $1.3 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia in March 2018, regardless of considerations from Congress, a Home Oversight and Reform Committee information launch mentioned.
The paperwork have been obtained from a subpoena issued by the late committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings in the course of the 116th Congress.
NPR contacted the Trump Group for remark however has not obtained a response.