The FBI spent $2,600 at Trump National Doral over six stays in 2018 and 2019, according to documents obtained by the ethics watchdog American Oversight. The expenses do not appear to have been reported previously.
For all six stays, the FBI paid Doral the maximum the government allowed, according to the General Services Administration’s per diem rate lookup. The nightly rates ranged from $119 to $176. In October 2019, Eric Trump told Yahoo that his company charges taxpayers “like 50 bucks” a night for U.S. government stays.
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There’s no full public accounting of how much taxpayers have paid the Trump Organization since its boss’s election. Known U.S. government spending at Trump properties totals more than $2.5 million, according to the Washington Post.
The documents the FBI turned over do not explain why the bureau chose Doral. A spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry. Trump’s Doral resort is located near several federal government offices.
“It’s disappointing that the pressure to funnel taxpayer money to President Trump’s businesses extended even to the rank and file of the FBI,” said Austin Evers, executive director at American Oversight. “The high-profile quid pro quos may have grabbed all the headlines, but this is yet another reminder of the day-to-day graft that pervaded the Trump administration from the beginning.”
I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the
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I took an unusual route to get here. In a past life, I worked as a travel and food writer, which is how I got the assignment in 2016 to cover the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., just a couple miles from my home. When Trump won the election and refused to divest his business, I stayed on the story, starting a newsletter called 1100 Pennsylvania (named after the hotel’s address) and contributed to Vanity Fair, Politico and NBC News. I’m still interested in Trump, but I’ve broadened my focus to follow the money connected to other politicians as well—both Republicans and Democrats.