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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWaPo: Voters don't need a definitive number to know that the Trump family is fleecing taxpayers
THE STATE DEPARTMENT has reported that it has about 450 pages of records detailing its spending at properties owned by President Trump. The public has a right to this information. The State Department, responding to a public records lawsuit brought by The Post, said in August it would try to produce 300 of the pages by Oct. 15.
Want to guess how many pages it actually coughed up that day? Two thats right, a paltry two pages. No explanation was provided and, in a further thumb in the eye to the publics right to know, the State Department signaled it has no plans to release more until mid-November. That is, of course, after the election that will decide whether Mr. Trump gets another four years in office. The State Departments stonewalling is part of an overall effort by the president and his administration to keep secret how much public money has gone to his businesses, again raising troubling questions of what Mr. Trump is hiding. Its also a sign of how he is infecting the entire government with his contempt for the law and the public.
The repeated refusal by federal and Trump Organization officials to provide information about government spending benefiting Mr. Trumps properties and often underwriting the travel of his adult children prompted The Post to undertake an effort, led by reporter David A. Fahrenthold, to compile its own tally by using Freedom of Information Act requests and a lawsuit to obtain receipts one at a time. So far, The Post has found more than $1.2?million in federal money paid to Mr. Trumps company, largely for hotel rooms and other expenses for aides and Secret Service agents when Mr. Trump visits which he does with frequency his own properties.
The lawsuit filed by The Post in June alleged that the State Department had improperly withheld all records responsive to eight public record requests submitted over the previous three months. Under the law, federal agencies are required to respond to requests in 20 business days, followed by prompt delivery of documents. Of the 450 documents the State Department catalogued as responsive to The Posts requests, it produced just two documents showing $8,316 paid to the Trump Organizations Doonbeg golf club in Ireland for a visit of Trumps daughter-in-law and campaign adviser Lara Trump. Redacted from the records was the rate per room the organization charged federal taxpayers. Good guess it wasnt the bargain rate Mr. Trumps son Eric Trump once claimed is all the organization charges the government.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/voters-dont-need-a-definitive-number-to-know-that-the-trump-family-is-fleecing-taxpayers/2020/10/20/89ba2ba6-124a-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)"norms are meant to be broken" situations?
SunSeeker
(51,367 posts)A few defense contractors got hit for that sort of thing in the past.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... a bunch of the clauses.
Garnish wages and put holds on Trump accounts, that in and of itself should be some of the first orders of business when the new congress comes into power.
We want peace, we work for justice ... Trump is NOT going to go away once he loses he will control a base of 5% minimum of his cult county wide in America.
That control will allow him to be kingmaker in the kGOP, use taking away all his money if he wont shut up
bucolic_frolic
(42,654 posts)How good are watchdogs in Congress, or even NGOs? They don't have complete information. They don't even have his tax returns.
Tanuki
(14,893 posts)Aside from pumping money into Trump properties and promoting their personal business, this doesn't seem to have any legitimate government purpose.
SunSeeker
(51,367 posts)not_the_one
(2,227 posts)I bet it is HUNDREDS of millions, through all his pretzel accounting methods..
AND he has been siphoning it to off shore/out of country accounts.
Even if we take every penny and freeze any remaining, he has MILLIONS that can't be touched.
Americans need to know totals, or as close as possible. Sometimes we need to have our face rubbed in shit before we can actually SMELL the shit.