Trump Org charged Secret Service up to $1,185 a night for Trump Hotel rooms: House committee
Michael McAuliff and Dave Goldiner

Former President Donald Trump’s real estate company dramatically overcharged the Secret Service, charging agents up to $1,185 a night for rooms at his own hotel.

A report from the House of Representatives Oversight Committee accused Trump of “self-dealing” by soaking the taxpayer for about five times the government’s normal per diem rate ranging from $195 to $240.

“The exorbitant rates ... 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,” wrote the committee chairwoman, Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York.

Despite repeated claims that the former president would use his businesses to save the federal government money, including representations from Eric Trump that government employees traveling with former President Trump “stay at our properties for free,” documents obtained by the committee show that the Secret Service was charged rates in excess of the government rate at least 40 times from Jan. 20, 2017, to Sept. 15, 2021.

The committee estimates the Secret Service forked over at least $1.4 million to Trump’s company during his four years in office to house agents protecting members of the former first family, including his grown children.

Maloney demanded that the Secret Service provide more information about payments to Trump-owned properties, both during Trump’s four-year term in office and since he left the White House.

“Given the longstanding concerns surrounding the former president’s conflicts of interest and efforts to profit off the presidency, the committee has a strong interest in obtaining a complete accounting of federal government spending at Trump properties,” Maloney said.

Members of the Secret Service stand outside the Oval Office as President Donald Trump, left, speaks to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019.

In a letter to the Secret Service director, Maloney specifically addressed that records turned over to her committee do not include payments for visits to Trump’s private club at Mar-a-Lago; his golf course in Bedminster, N.J.; and for stays at Trump properties outside the United States during frequent foreign travel by the Trump family.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency is aware of Maloney’s request for a fuller account, according to The Washington Post.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politi ... story.html

Just an observation - somebody signed off on every one of the agents expense accounts. They are responsible as well.

Room rentals, resort fees and furniture removal: How Trump’s company charged the U.S. government more than $900,000
David A. Fahrenthold, Josh Dawsey and Joshua Partlow

The Secret Service had asked for a room close to the president. But Mar-a-Lago said it was too late. The room was booked. Would agents like a room across the street from the president, instead?

“I do have a Beach Cabana available,” a staff member at President Trump’s club in Palm Beach, Fla., wrote in March 2017 to a Secret Service agent seeking rooms for the upcoming weekend. “Across the street at the Beach Club, North end of the pool.”

The next time, the Secret Service didn’t take the same risk. It paid Mar-a-Lago to book rooms for two weeks at a time — locking them up before the club could rent them to others, according to newly released records and emails.

For Trump’s club, it appeared, saying no to the Secret Service had made it a better customer. The agency was paying for rooms on nights when Trump wasn’t even visiting — to be ready just in case Trump decided to go, one former Trump administration official said.

Trump has now visited his own properties 271 times as president, according to a Washington Post tally — including a visit Thursday, when he met with GOP donors at his D.C. hotel.

Through these trips, Trump has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies and GOP campaign groups. Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump’s businesses more than ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html