Associated Investments in Trump’s Hotel During a Camp David Summit: The House Oversight Committee Accounts of a Special Announcement
Trump’s hotel became a target for Trump loyalists, Republicans and lobbyists in the hopes of gaining access to administration officials. Democrats have accused Trump of violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause which prohibits a president from receiving an “emolument” unless Congress consents.
The committee’s disclosure of Trump’s financial documents comes one day before Trump is set to hold a “special announcement” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the former president is expected to launch another campaign for the White House in 2024. The former president’s foreign business dealings, as well as those of his immediate family members, have been under scrutiny for years, and that has persisted in the months since he left office.
The House Oversight Committee received financial documents from Mazars after a deal was reached to end litigation over the documents. Mazars was subpoenaed in April for Trump’s financial records.
A spokesperson for the National Archives told CNN that they “are in receipt of the letter and will respond in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.”
Eric Trump said in a statement that the company went to great lengths to make sure there wasn’t a conflict of interest in their dealings with the Presidency. We walked away from billions of dollars in new deals, ceased all international expansion, engaged with an outside ethics adviser to review any material transactions and furthermore, have voluntarily donated all profits from foreign government patronage at our properties back to the United States Treasury on an annual basis.”
On March 13, the day before the hotel spending, President Trump fired his secretary of state, who they said was lobbying to remove him from his post because of his role in stopping a Saudi-led invasion of the Persian Gulf.
During the trial of Tom Barrack, a man accused of being an agent of the U.S. in the Arab world, Tillerson testified that the former president came up with the idea for a Camp David summit after he initially supported the move to resolve the blockade crisis.
Barrack was found not guilty. But Tillerson’s testimony provided unique insight into the former president’s personal role in trying to broker a resolution between the three counties after initially supporting the UAE and Saudi governments.
The Saudi andEIC officials stayed at the Trump hotel and then had a meeting with Trump at the White House where he discussed the situation in Duke and the US arms sales to them. In the meeting, Trump said Saudi Arabia was a great friend.
CNN reported that Erdogan had urged Trump in a phone call to drop a potential DOJ indictment into Halkbank. Trump told Erdogan he would have his people look into it.
The investigation into Halkbank was led by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. CNN previously reported that US Attorney General Bill Barr spearheaded the attempt to negotiate a settlement with the bank that could have allowed it to avoid indictment.
While he was US attorney, Berman believed that Barr was trying to pressure his office to drop charges so he would not have to prosecute. Berman was terminated eight months later.
Over a period of seven months beginning September 2017, lobbyist and Trump donor Brian Ballard spent $21,209 at the Trump hotel, according to the Maloney letter and committee records. Turkey paid $4.7 million for lobbying over the past two years. He also worked for Halkbank as a lobbyist.
The committee said that the hotel’s biggest windfall was due to a visit by Malaysia’s Prime Minister, who stayed at the hotel.
The Justice Department brought criminal charges against other individuals in connection with the scheme. Razak was not charged by US authorities, but was prosecuted in Malaysia for his role in the scheme. Broidy and the associate both pleaded guilty to charges related to the secret lobbying effort. The president pardoned the man at the end of his term.
He Met with the Chinese Prime Minister: Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Rendezvous with the Saudi Arabian Consultative General Relativity
Trump had a crucial relationship with the Chinese leader while he was president and his Mar-a-Lago resort was where they first met.
At least $164,929 was spent in late 2017 through mid-2018 by government officials from Saudi Arabia and the UAE when the two nations were isolating Qatar, a U.S. ally, for allegedly supporting terrorism, which Qatar denied. Trump approved a $1.3 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia in March 2018, despite concerns from Congress, a House Oversight and Reform Committee news release said.