Oh look. The corruption is even worse than we thought
by digby
More from Politico on Turnberry:
Since Donald Trump took office, the U.S. military has spent nearly $200,000 at the president’s luxury Scotland resort, according to figures and documents the Pentagon provided to the House Oversight Committee.
The spending, which has all occurred since August 2017, paid for the equivalent of hundreds of nights of rooms at the Turnberry resort over approximately three dozen separate stays, the committee said.
The Air Force confirmed last week that its crews had stayed up to 40 times at Trump’s property since 2015, but it has not provided a breakdown of the number of stays since Trump was elected. The figures provided to the House Oversight Committee suggest the vast majority of stays — if not all of them — have occurred since Trump took office, raising concerns among Democrats about a conflict of interest.
POLITICO first reported earlier this month that the Oversight Committee had been probing military spending at Turnberry since April to determine whether the money constituted a violation of the Constitution’s domestic emoluments clause, which prohibits the president from receiving any compensation from the federal government other than his salary.
After being elected, Trump chose not to fully divest himself from his business interests, choosing instead to put his holdings in a trust that he can receive money from at any time.
The committee’s probe has ramped up in the wake of POLITICO’s reporting on several overnight stays at the resort by U.S. Air Force crews, some of which have been multinight stays involving dozens of crew members and passengers.
The Pentagon documents showed that U.S. taxpayer funds “have been used to pay for more than three dozen separate stays involving hundreds of nights of rooms — all after the President was sworn into office,” according to a letter the committee’s chairman, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) wrote to acting Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday.
The Democrats called the Pentagon’s response so far — about 21 pages of material turned over to the panel, but no underlying invoices or travel records — “woefully inadequate.”
But the department did reveal that the average cost of a room at Turnberry for military service members from August 2017 to July 2019 was $189, and that Turnberry expenditures during that time period “amounted to $124,578.96” — plus an “an additional $59,729.12” in unspecified charges to government travel cards.
“If both of these claims are accurate, it appears that U.S. taxpayer funds were used to purchase the equivalent of more than 650 rooms at the Trump Turnberry just since August 2017 — or the equivalent of one room every night for more than one-and-a-half years,” the congressmen wrote.
The Pentagon also provided documents reflecting charges at Turnberry that were higher than its stated average per diem allowances for hotel rooms, including 17 separate charges for $450 on June 25, 2018, 45 separate charges for around $300 on Sept. 26, 2018, and three charges for over $600 each on Nov. 18, 2018, according to the committee.
This is looking like a much bigger scandal than originally thought. It wasn’t just a couple of Airman who found themselves at Turnberry one day, wondering how they got there. This has been a systematic choice to line Trump’s pockets. I have little doubt that Trump knew all about it. He may have even ordered it, but didn’t really have to. People know he loves money. They know he favors people who try to curry favor by brown-nosing him and putting cash in his pockets. And these Air Force personnel almost certainly believed that they could get away with spending 450 a night on a hotel room at trump’s golf course because he’s the president.
It’s all madness.
Oh, and then there’s this:
They are not the resort’s only conspicuous guests. Earlier this summer, according to a staffer, a group of Saudi royals stayed at the resort for about a week at the tail end of extended travel, bringing a party of 25 people and more than a hundred pieces of luggage.
And this:
Though Trump has put his ownership interest in the Trump Organization into a trust, which is managed by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, the president can withdraw money from it any time.
He needs access to cash while he’s in the White House to pay all the hush money, of course. What’s he supposed to do?
.