October 19, 2024 - Washington, D.C. - On Friay, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, released a new staff report revealing how, while he was in office, Donald Trump used the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. to unlawfully take hundreds of payments from a federal agency—the U.S. Secret Service—and also to take legally and ethically questionable payments from federal and state officials, federal job seekers, and presidential pardon recipients.  These payments demonstrate how Donald Trump violated the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause as he used the Secret Service as his personal ATM and repeatedly took payments that raise the specter of pay-to-play corruption from individuals who sought and, in many cases obtained, favors from the Commander-in-Chief. 

The report is based on a limited set of records—hotel guest logs covering just 11 months at a single one of Donald Trump’s more than 500 business entities—produced by Mr. Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP, before Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, working with attorneys for former President Trump, slammed the door shut and blocked  Committee Democrats from obtaining additional records pursuant to a Committee subpoena and court-supervised settlement.  Giving new meaning to the term “petty cash,” most of the payments made in the time frame discussed in this report were small—and their cumulative total is just over $300,000—but these transactions provide a glimpse into the wide array of unlawful and unethical transactions, including flat-out violations of the Constitution, that characterized Donald Trump’s methodical exploitation of his presidency for moneymaking purposes.

“During the 118th Congress, the Republican-led Oversight Committee systematically obstructed Democrats’ investigation into evidence of unconstitutional wrongdoing and profiteering by former President Trump.  And they tried to hide a mountain of evidence documenting how Trump used his hotel to fleece the American taxpayer to line his own pockets in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause.  The Constitution makes clear:  beyond a salary, the president may not receive any additional payments from federal or state governments.  This is a non-waivable prohibition against exploiting the office to convert and pocket public funds.

“Despite the tall tale told by Eric Trump that U.S. Secret Service agents ‘stay at our properties for free,’ Donald Trump’s hotel repeatedly fleeced the U.S. Secret Service, charging it far in excess of approved government per diem rates and even many times the rates charged to hundreds of other patrons—including some of the rooms rented by the Qatari royal family and Chinese business interests—for rooms used by agents protecting members of the Trump family.

“Our report also details startling instances in which state and federal officials, as well as individuals actively seeking federal jobs and presidential pardons, used the D.C. hotel as a channel to put money into the Commander-in-Chief’s pocket. 

“Mr. Trump has made clear that he will not only refuse to divest from his businesses in a possible future presidency, but he will seek to multiply opportunities to commodify the Oval Office for his personal enrichment by turning thousands of civil service jobs into patronage positions—all with the attendant payoff possibilities from supplicant job-seekers and the prospective blessing of his hand-picked Supreme Court justices. 

“While we still do not know the full extent of the unconstitutional payments Trump pocketed while fleecing American taxpayers, one thing is certain:  we must put legal barriers in place now to prevent the kind of rip-off corruption our Founding Fathers so strongly opposed.  Given the need to enforce the U.S. Constitution against both foreign and domestic emoluments corruption, in the coming days, I will work with my Democratic Colleagues on a legislative fix and hope that my Republican colleagues will join us in this effort,” said Ranking Member Raskin.

A few examples of unconstitutional, illegal and corrupt expenditures revealed in the report:

• U.S. Secret Service:  Then-President Trump turned the U.S. Secret Service into an ATM for his personal enrichment, frequently charging the agency room rates far above approved government per diem rates and far above the rates charged to hundreds of other private patrons when Secret Service agents were protecting members of the Trump family.  For example:

• • On November 8, 2017, when Donald Trump Jr. stayed at former President Trump’s D.C. hotel, the Secret Service under President Trump approved a room rate of $1,185—more than five times the approved government per diem rate of $201.  The room records provided to the Committee by Mazars show that the Secret Service was indeed charged the astounding rate of $1,185 for two rooms that evening.  Amazingly, that same night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 200 rooms to private parties at just $125 or $170 each.   
     
  • On November 28, 2017, in conjunction with an apparent stay by Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, the Secret Service approved a waiver for a room rate of $600 when the official per diem for that month was just $201.  The room records Mazars produced to the Committee show that, on 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 renting a dozen rooms to the Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co., Ltd.—a private corporation headquartered in China—for $338.85 each.
     
  • During a February 22, 2018, visit by Eric Trump, then-President Trump’s D.C. hotel charged the Secret Service $895 for at least one room—more than four times the per diem rate of $201.  That same night, four of the rooms charged at the D.C. hotel that evening to the “Sheikh Al Thani Family Extended Stay”—Al Thani being the name of the royal family of Qatar—were charged at rates less than $895.  As such, Trump charged the taxpayers considerably more for some of his unlawful domestic emoluments that night than he charged foreign royals for some of his unlawful foreign emoluments.

• Trump Family:  Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner—former President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law who were then serving as senior White House advisors in the Trump Administration—were apparently charged for their Trump hotel stays while Eric Trump, Lara Trump, and Donald Trump Jr.—Trump children not working for the government—were apparently not charged at all for their stays.  The Committee has been unable to determine whether Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner used taxpayer funds to pay the Trump Hotel for their stays or to obtain an explanation for this discrepancy between members of Trump’s family who served in government and those who did not.  But, given everything else we have learned about Trump practices, it seems logical to conclude that this may have been another opportunity to cash in on taxpayer dollars.
   
• Ambassadors:  Eight of President Trump’s Ambassadors stayed at his D.C. hotel during their time in office, often while on official business, meaning any payments they made using taxpayer funds directly violated the constitutional prohibition on domestic emoluments.  Some of these ambassadors even took it upon themselves to actively steer additional business to their boss’s hotel.

• State and Local Government Officials:  Two state officials and one delegation of state legislators stayed at Trump’s D.C. hotel while on official or political business, likely violating the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause, which forbids the President to take money from state governments.
   
• Judgeships:  The report identifies four examples of individuals nominated by former President Trump to serve as federal judges who stayed at Trump’s D.C. hotel before they were nominated to their posts or during key steps in their confirmation processes.  The Senate confirmed all four of these individuals who now hold lifetime positions.  Three of these judges spent money at the President’s hotel while they were sitting state or magistrate judges.
  
  
• Pardons:  At least five people who received pardons from President Trump stayed at his D.C. hotel in just the 11 months for which Committee Democrats were able to obtain records. For example:
  
  • Elliott Broidy:  Mr. Broidy spent approximately $15,000 on stays at former President Trump’s D.C. hotel in the fall and winter of 2017 and in early 2018.  During the Trump Administration, Mr. Broidy violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act for his un-registered lobbying to try to persuade the Administration to drop the DOJ’s prosecutions regarding Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.  Mr. Broidy even stayed at former President Trump’s hotel the day he reportedly lobbied the former President on behalf of the United Arab Emirates to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.  President Trump pardoned this repeat customer days before leaving office.  
     
  • Albert Pirro:  Mr. Pirro stayed at then-President Trump’s D.C. hotel for at least four nights in 2018, spending more than $2,000.  On his final day in office, Mr. Trump would grant Mr. Pirro, a real-estate lawyer whom Mr. Trump had previously kept on retainer, a pardon for his 2000 conviction on conspiracy and tax evasion charges.

Today’s new report follows the Oversight Democrats’ report detailing former President Trump’s violation of the Constitution’s Foreign Emoluments Clause after pocketing at least $7.8 million from at least 20 foreign governments which sought and often obtained favorable treatment from the Trump Administration while spending money at just four of Mr. Trump’s properties over a two-year period.

Click hereto read the report. 

Click here for underlying documents.
Source: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Democrats