Comment Officials from six countries spent more than $750,000 at former President Donald Trump’s Washington hotel as they sought to influence his administration, according to documents released to congressional investigators. Records obtained by the House Oversight and Reform Committee from Mazars USA, Trump’s former accounting firm, show that the governments of China, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates spent more money at the Trump International Hotel — renting rooms for up to $10,000 a night — than previously known as they sought to influence the Trump administration’s foreign policy. “These documents strongly call into question the extent to which President Trump has been guided by his personal financial interests during his time in office, rather than the interest of the American people,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (DN.Y.). chairman of the committee, said in a statement on Monday. “These documents, which the Commission continues to receive from Mazars, will inform our legislative efforts to ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position for personal gain.” Hotel records show lavish spending by foreign dignitaries. Malaysia’s prime minister spent $1,500 on a personal trainer during his eight-day stay, for example, $259,724 at Trump’s hotel, and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense spent $85,961 at the hotel for members of a Saudi delegation, which included suites $10,500 a night. Qatari officials spent more than $300,000 in the three months leading up to the meeting between Trump and the Arab country’s emir. The Oversight Committee’s findings from financial documents are based on extensive Washington Post reporting detailing how Trump’s hotel benefited from foreign governments during his tenure and the blurred lines between his business and his government. Last year, Maloney and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) released hundreds of pages of financial documents related to the Trump property from the General Services Administration — the agency that leased the federal property to Trump’s company — and estimated that the Trump’s hotel had received $3.7 million over three years in payments from foreign governments. Trump and the Oversight Committee reached an agreement in September after years of litigation that would finally allow the committee to see a limited range of Trump’s records with Mazars to check his compliance with presidential ethics and disclosure laws. The records released Monday cover a limited period, but Maloney requested additional documents from the National Archives, including all documents and communications related to the Trump hotel or Trump-owned hotel stays, documents and communications related to foreign payments to the Trump Hotel and documents and communications related to Chinese or Russian tourism to the Trump Hotel or stays by Chinese or Russian officials. The committee also found that Republican lobbyists with close ties to the Trump administration working on behalf of those countries spent tens of thousands at the Trump hotel during the same periods. Elliott Broidy, vice chairman of Trump’s Victory Committee and then vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, stayed at the Trump hotel “for four nights during the Malaysian delegation’s visit and spent $5,345 during September 2017,” Maloney wrote to Acting Archivist Debra Steidel Wall in a letter outlining the committee’s findings. Broidy later pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent and admitted to secretly lobbying the Trump administration on behalf of Malaysian and Chinese interests.
