Secret Service ordered to reveal how much it has paid to Trump's private company
House Democrats are demanding to see documentation following reports in The Washington Post that the Trump Organisation is charging the Secret Service rates of up to $650 per night to stay at its properties.
The disturbing reports of “exorbitant charges” at President Donald Trump’s private clubs and resorts, and the administration’s failure to disclose the amount of taxpayer dollars being spent at these private properties, are the subject of a letter (PDF) sent to James Murray, director of the Secret Service.
Representative Carolyn Maloney of New York, the chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and committee member Jackie Speier of California, say in the letter that the rates and the lack of transparency raise serious concerns.
“These concerns are heightened since President Trump has spent a third of his presidency at his private clubs and hotels, and his Treasury Secretary has attempted to shield Secret Service expenses from public scrutiny,” Ms Maloney and Ms Speier wrote.
The Washington Post reported on 7 February that the Trump Organisation charged the Secret Service rates as high as $650 per night at Mar-a-Lago, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act as well as personal accounts.
That rate was charged dozens of times in 2017, and a lower rate of $396.15 was charged dozens more times in 2018.
The Secret Service was also charged $17,000 per month to use a three-bedroom cottage on President Trump’s property in Bedminster, New Jersey — “an unusually high rent for homes in that area.”
The report detailed nearly $500,000 in payments by the Secret Service to the president’s companies during only a fraction of his time in office. Given the limited information available, the total is thought to be much higher than that.
Similar concerns were raised in a report published by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) requested by the late-Chairman Elijah Cummings and Ms Speier.
That report revealed that the federal government spent $13.6 million for just four trips to Mar-a-Lago in early 2017. Of those expenses some $1.6 million was allocated to the Secret Service to provide support.
“Such steep spending of taxpayer funds stands in stark contrast to statements made by Trump Organisation officials regarding how the president’s business charges the government,” wrote Ms Maloney and Ms Speier.
Eric Trump, the president’s son who manages the organisation, told Yahoo! Finance in an interview that they charge the government something for services such as housekeeping, but otherwise provide rooms at Trump properties at cost.
He said: “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free … So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like $50.”
The Secret Service has not disclosed the full scope of its payments to the president’s businesses or its expenses for presidential travel to his own properties.
For the first 18 months of the Trump presidency, the Secret Service failed to submit to the House committee the semiannual reports on expenditures to protect the president that are required by law under the Presidential Protection Assistance Act (1976).
In addition, the three most recent reports do not account for certain properties, such as Mar-a-Lago, and “they lack the level of granularity needed for the committee to fulfill its responsibility to conduct effective oversight.”
Ms Maloney and Ms Speier have requested all documents, contracts and communications between the Secret Service and Trump Organisation and its affiliates relating to the rental of accommodation or provision of security or other services at its properties.
They set a deadline of 25 February, 2020.
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