Grifters Gotta Grift

Gee what a surprise.  Donald Trump charged room rates well over the normal rates for Secret Service agents at his Trump International Hotel.

So, he set things up so that the agents had to stay there, and then padded their bills.

This is fraud, pure and simple:

During Donald Trump’s presidency, his D.C. hotel charged the U.S. Secret Service 300 percent or more above standard government rates on multiple occasions, and at times charged the government agency more than it did other patrons — including a Chinese business and members of a foreign royal family, according to a new report released Friday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The authors of the report, which is based on Trump International Hotel room records from September 2017 and August 2018, argue that Trump violated the Constitution’s foreign and domestic emoluments clauses, which were designed to prevent the president and other federal officials from enriching themselves at taxpayer expense.

The House Democrats’ report cites several previously undisclosed instances in which Trump International Hotel charged the Secret Service rates that were not only above the normal government per diem rate but above rates it charged other patrons. The report is based on records Democrats obtained from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA, along with corresponding special waivers authorizing the Secret Service to make payments above normal government rates.

When Eric Trump visited the hotel on Feb. 22, 2018, two of the rooms the Secret Service rented were charged at $895 each, a 450 percent mark up of the government rate, according to the report. The same evening, more than 100 rooms at the 263-room hotel were rented out at rates lower than $895, “including at least one room rented out for just $150,” the Democrats found.

………

The Washington Post has extensively reported on expenses the Secret Service incurred at Trump properties while agents were protecting him and his family during his time in the White House.

In 2022, The Post reported that U.S. taxpayers paid Trump’s business at least $1.4 million for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump properties for his and his family’s protection. Receipts and invoices previously obtained by The Post have highlighted not just high charges for rooms at the luxury properties but additional fees, including a $1,300 “furniture removal charge” to the Secret Service in 2018 at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland.

 Handcuffs please?