The House Oversight Committee has released a number of documents on Monday that reveal former President Donald Trump’s company, Trump Organization, had charged the US Secret Service “exorbitant rates” at its establishments for protecting the then-first family of the country.
According to the report, the Trump Organization had charged the US agency “excessive nightly rates on dozens of trips”, which went up to as high as $1,185 per night, despite Trump’s claims that employees of the federal government who travel with him would stay at his establishments either for free or “at cost.”
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New York’s Democratic Representative, Carolyn Maloney, wrote to the Secret Service director on Monday, October 17, “The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.”
On a number of occasions during his presidency, Donald Trump frequently travelled to his luxury establishments like the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida’s Palm Beach and the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey’s Bedminster. On all occasions, even after his presidency, Trump Organization had charged federal officials and Secret Service agents for staying at the establishments to serve the first family.
Maloney has also stated that the committee has been asking without success for two years for details of the Secret Service’s expenditures at Trump-owned properties, which “appears to exceed $1.4 million of taxpayer money.”
The panel is also looking at options for legislation in order to prevent “presidential self-dealing and profiteering, as well as to curb conflicts of interest by ensuring that future presidents are prevented from exercising undue influence on Secret Service spending.”
The panel has also reported that from January 2017 to September 2021, Trump Organization has charged the Secret Service more than its government rate on a minimum of 40 different occasions.
