by The House Oversight and Reform Committee said Monday that representatives from six foreign governments spent $750,000 at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., while simultaneously trying to influence US policy during Trump’s presidency.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (DN.Y.), has released a series of documents showing officials from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and China spent up to $10,000 a night for “opulent rooms” at the Trump hotel.
“These documents raise the question of the extent to which President Trump was guided in office by his personal financial interests rather than the interests of the American people,” Maloney said in a statement Monday.
The House committee has subpoenaed documents from international financial accounting firm Mazars USA, which once worked closely with Trump but has since severed ties.
The commission launched an investigation in 2019 into potential conflicts of interest, false financial disclosures, and emolument clause violations during the Trump presidency.
The commission reached an agreement in September to obtain Trump’s financial documents after a protracted legal battle with the former president.
According to recently released documents, former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak visited the Trump International Hotel in September 2017 during a Justice Department investigation into allegations that Razak and his family looted a Malaysian wealth fund and laundered money through US financial settings.
Razak spent at least $259,724 from September 7 to 15 of that year, according to the House Oversight and Reform committee, and was praised by Trump during the visit. Razak was convicted of corruption in Malaysia in 2020.
Representatives from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, both of which had close ties to the Trump administration, spent at least $164,929 from late 2017 to mid-2018, according to the commission’s documents.
In April 2018, Qatari government officials spent more than $300,000 at the Trump hotel, documents show. Trump reportedly praised leaders from Qatar during the visit.
Officials from Turkey and China also spent thousands of dollars at the hotel during the Trump presidency when they traveled to the US on political business.
The House committee said it would release more records related to Trump’s hotel spending by the end of November.
“These documents, which the Mazars committee continues to obtain, will inform our legislative efforts to ensure future presidents do not abuse their positions of power for personal gain,” Maloney said in her statement.
