Trump Hotels Charged Secret Service Exorbitant Rates, House Inquiry Finds - The New York Times

Politics|Trump Hotels Charged Secret Service Exorbitant Rates, House Inquiry Finds

WASHINGTON — The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service up to $1,185 per nighttime for edifice rooms utilized by agents protecting erstwhile President Donald J. Trump and his family, according to documents released connected Monday by the House Oversight Committee, forcing a national bureau to wage good supra authorities rates.

The committee released Secret Service records showing much than $1.4 cardinal successful payments by the section to Trump properties since Mr. Trump took bureau successful 2017. The committee said that the accounting was incomplete, however, due to the fact that it did not see payments to Mr. Trump’s overseas properties — wherever agents accompanied his household repeatedly — and due to the fact that the records stopped successful September 2021.

The records the sheet managed to get provided caller details astir an statement successful which Mr. Trump and his household efficaciously turned the Secret Service into a captive lawsuit of their business — by visiting their properties hundreds of times, and past charging the authorities rates acold supra its accustomed spending limits for their protectors to follow.

The records besides marque wide that Mr. Trump’s lad Eric — who ran the household concern portion his begetter was successful bureau — provided a misleading relationship of what his institution was charging.

In 2019, Eric Trump said the Trump Organization charged the authorities lone “like $50” for edifice rooms during statesmanlike visits.

Instead, records obtained by the committee showed, the Trump International Hotel successful Washington repeatedly charged the Secret Service rates much than $600 per night. In 1 case, the edifice charged the Secret Service $1,160 a nighttime for a country utilized portion protecting Eric Trump successful 2017. That was much than 4 times higher than the government’s accustomed spending bounds for Washington hotels — but Secret Service officials approved, the records show.

The aforesaid year, the records showed, Mr. Trump’s edifice successful Washington charged the work $1,185 for a country utilized portion guarding Donald Trump Jr.

“Per diem rates could not beryllium obtained,” a Secret Service grounds said, referring to the government’s authoritative maximum rate. By law, the section is allowed to transcend those maximum payments erstwhile its protective ngo requires.

Previously, the highest complaint that the Trump Organization was known to person charged the authorities for a edifice country was $650 per night, for rooms astatine Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago nine successful Palm Beach, Fla.

“What gets maine is, implicit and implicit again, however they conscionable prevarication astir this stuff,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the Oversight Committee. “Documents don’t lie.”

In an interview, Ms. Maloney said the documents made wide that Mr. Trump was taking vantage of taxpayers by efficaciously requiring Secret Service agents to enactment astatine properties helium owned, and past billing the authorities exorbitant charges.

“This raises concerns that the Trump Organization was profiting disconnected the presidency,” Ms. Maloney said. “It’s excessive.”

She said the committee would proceed to analyse however Mr. Trump’s businesses leveraged the presidency to his fiscal advantage, peculiarly regarding connections to overseas governments.

“This is conscionable the extremity of the iceberg,” Ms. Maloney said.

The Trump Organization did not instantly respond to a petition for remark connected Monday. In the past, the company’s representatives have said that it billed the authorities “at cost” and could person made much wealth renting rooms to different guests. The institution has continued to complaint the Secret Service since Mr. Trump near office and began surviving astatine his properties full-time.

In 2020, The Washington Post reported that the authorities had spent much than $2.5 million astatine Trump properties during his presidency. The payments came from aggregate agencies and were mostly prompted by Mr. Trump’s travel.

The State Department, for instance, paid the Mar-a-Lago nine thousands of dollars for expenses related to Mr. Trump’s summits with overseas leaders determination — including charges for flowers, nutrient and adjacent glasses of water.

The White House paid Mar-a-Lago much than $1,000 to screen 54 alcoholic drinks consumed by Trump aides successful a backstage bar, as archetypal reported by ProPublica.

And the Secret Service paid Mr. Trump’s institution to travel his household to properties astir the state and the world. Many of those charges were related to the erstwhile president’s visits to Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Golf Club successful Bedminster, N.J. — wherever the Secret Service paid the Trump Organization $17,000 per month, an unusually precocious rent for that area, to usage a “cottage” connected the grounds of the play club.

The Secret Service besides paid the Trump Organization for rooms it utilized portion protecting apical medication officials — including Vice President Mike Pence and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin — during their stays astatine Trump properties.

The records obtained by the Oversight Committee amusement that the Secret Service has made astatine slightest 669 payments to Mr. Trump’s company, Ms. Maloney said connected Monday successful a nationalist missive to Kimberly A. Cheatle, the agency’s director.

The Secret Service did not instantly respond to questions connected Monday.

Mr. Trump continued to ain his businesses passim his presidency, though helium said helium had fixed day-to-day absorption to his big sons. The Trump Organization’s charges did not interruption the law, ethics experts said, since presidents are mostly exempt from conflict-of-interest laws that use to different national officials.