[ad_1]
Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times by way of Getty Imag
Documents launched by the House Oversight and Reform Committee present extravagant spending from international leaders at former President Donald Trump’s luxurious lodge in Washington, D.C., which the committee says might have violated his oath of workplace by distorting U.S. international coverage for private monetary acquire.
Government officers from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China collectively spent over $750,000 on the Trump International Hotel throughout his presidency, based on committee chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and, she mentioned, did so “at sensitive times for those countries’ relations with the United States.”
The paperwork — lodge ledgers from Trump’s former accounting agency, Mazars USA LLP — had been launched in reference to a letter Maloney despatched to the National Archives and Records Administration on Monday. That letter requested presidential data to find out whether or not Trump’s enterprise was a battle of curiosity and in violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses, designed to forestall corruption and international affect on federal officers.
“These documents sharply call into question the extent to which President Trump was guided by his personal financial interest while in office rather than the best interests of the American people,” Maloney mentioned. “These documents, which the Committee continues to obtain from Mazars, will inform our legislative efforts to ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain.”
The documents launched Monday revealed that in 2017, then-Prime Minister of Malaysia Najib Razak visited the White House that September whereas he and members of his household had been being investigated by the Department of Justice for stealing from a Malaysian state-owned investment fund and cash laundering. The lodge receipts present that Razak and his entourage spent a minimum of $259,724 on the lodge, together with on a $10,000-per-night presidential suite.
At least $164,929 was spent in late 2017 by mid-2018 by authorities officers from Saudi Arabia and the UAE when the 2 nations had been isolating Qatar, a U.S. ally, for allegedly supporting terrorism, which Qatar denied. Trump accepted a $1.3 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia in March 2018, regardless of considerations from Congress, a House Oversight and Reform Committee news release said.
The paperwork had been obtained from a subpoena issued by the late committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings through the 116th Congress.
NPR contacted the Trump Organization for remark however has not acquired a response.
[adinserter block=”4″]
[ad_2]
Source link