The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “exorbitant fees” — more than $1.4 million over four years — to protect the former president and his family on the properties they owned, according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Monday (18).
The committee found that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “excessive nightly fees on dozens of trips” of up to $1,185 a night, despite claims by the former president’s company that federal employees traveling with him would stay at these properties “for free.” ” or “at cost.”
“The Secret Service’s exorbitant fees and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former president’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for the former president’s ailing business. Trump,” the panel chair, New York Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney, wrote in a letter to the director of the service on Monday.
When he was president, Trump frequently traveled to properties his company ran as businesses, including Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. While he was there, some agents and officers stayed in rooms at these properties, although others rented rooms at nearby hotels.
Charging his protection for lodging on his own properties was a controversial practice when Trump was in office and continued into his post-presidency.
Maloney also notes that his committee has been seeking a complete account of Secret Service spending on Trump-owned properties for more than two years, but has not yet received complete information on the per diems or the total amount spent by the agency, which “appears to exceed US$. $1.4 million in taxpayer money.”
The committee is still seeking Secret Service records, noting that the panel is reviewing potential legislation to prevent “presidential manipulation and speculation, as well as to contain conflicts of interest, ensuring that future presidents are prevented from exercising undue influence over the Secret Service.” Secret”
In a statement, Eric Trump said that “any services provided to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies” at Trump-owned hotels “were at his request and were provided at cost, heavily discounted or free of charge.”
The committee said the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service more than the government fee at least 40 times from January 2017 to September 2021.
One such time was in March 2017, when the Trump Organization charged $1,160 a night to stay at the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C., to protect Eric Trump, who was hosting a golf tournament at the Trump National Golf Club. According to the General Services Administration website, the daily rate was $242 in March 2017 in Washington.
In a statement, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the agency received the letter from the committee but did not discuss the specific details.
“Protecting our proteges is part of the agency’s zero-failure mission and our topmost priority. Protection details must always be within reach of 24/7 protection and that requires us to travel where they travel,” said Guglielmi.
Source: CNN Brasil
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