According to expense records obtained by Congress, while staying at Trump hotels, the Secret Service was charged as much as five times more than the government-approved rate, raising concern about whether or not former president Donald Trump used the presidency to make a profit.
The records, obtained by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, reflect 40 times the Secret Service was billed by the Trump Organization at far higher amounts than the approved government rate.
This discovery now contradicts comments repeated by former President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump, who has said that Secret Service agents had been given rooms "at cost" or free of charge. Instead, the security team was forced to pay above the normal rate, one time being charged $1,185 a night to stay at the Trump International Hotel in D.C., the documents show.
Eric Trump, who also serves as the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, has refuted the claims that his family profited from the Secret Service.
"Any services rendered to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies at Trump owned properties, were at their request and were either provided at cost, heavily discounted or for free," he said in a statement. "The company would have been substantially better off if hospitality services were sold to full-paying guests, however, the company did whatever it took to accommodate the agencies to ensure they were able to do their jobs at the highest levels."
Still, the billing documents show that the U.S. taxpayer paid the president's company at least $1.4 million for agents to stay at Trump properties while protecting Trump and his family, according to a congressional committee's review.
Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle saying that bills are a cause for concern.
"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," Maloney wrote.
The documents do not cover all of the expenses incurred by the Secret Service while at Trump's properties during his presidency. However, they do offer insight into the financial accounting of what taxpayers paid for Trump's choice to stay at properties he owned, doing so more than 500 times in his four years in office.
Maloney is the chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. She shared that she obtained the documents as part of an investigation she was conducting into how Trump possibly profited off his security during his presidency.
"Given the long-standing concerns surrounding the former President's conflicts of interest and efforts to profit off the presidency, the committee has a strong interest in obtaining a complete accounting of federal government spending at Trump properties," Maloney wrote. "The Committee continues to examine potential legislation 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."
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