Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Friday accused former US President Donald Trump of charging the Secret Service “exorbitant rates” for rooms at his former hotel in Washington during his presidency.
According to a report in CBS News, Democrats alleged that Trump deliberately charged agents far above what other similar rooms cost when they stayed at the hotel as the protective detail for Trump family members.
The 58-page report said, “The Secret Service charges associated with Eric Trump‘s stays at just the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, demonstrate clearly that former President Trump’s DC hotel treated stays by Trump family members as the ultimate government ATM withdrawal opportunity.”
According to CBS News, the Committee Democrats obtained hotel billing records from the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, which was recently closed and reopened as the Waldorf-Astoria. The records, spanning from September 2017 to August 2018, were acquired after legal challenges against Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA.
According to the report, the Secret Service paid higher prices for room rentals compared to customers who booked similar rooms on the same nights, using taxpayer funds. For instance, on Nov. 28, 2017, “the room records produced to the Committee by Mazars show that, on that night, among the rooms the Secret Service rented, several were charged at the $600 rate. Notably, that very night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 80 rooms at rates less than $600 per room, including a dozen rooms rented to the Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co, Ltd.—which is headquartered in China—for $338.85 each.”
Further, the report said that on February 22, 2018, the Secret Service paid more than four times the government per diem rate for rooms at the Trump Hotel, representing “an astounding markup of more than 450% of the per diem rate.”
“The room records provided by Mazars show that, among the rooms the Secret Service rented, two rooms were charged at $895 each,” while “the room records also show that former President Trump’s DC hotel rented out more than 100 rooms that evening at rates of less than $895—including at least one room rented out for just $150,” the report said.
The report alleges that by accepting these payments from the Secret Service, former President Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause, which prohibits a president from receiving any payments from the federal government apart from their salary.
“By accepting the payments that he imposed on the Secret Service, former President Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause—which provides that a president may not receive any payments from the federal government other than a salary,” the report said.
