Tag: Trump family grift

Melania Trump cost taxpayers at least $64,000 for a spa weekend as whole Trump family racked up $600 million in security

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Former first lady Melania Trump refused to go to public events with her husband as news became public that he had an affair with Stormy Daniels in the weeks that followed her giving birth to his son. Mrs. Trump sought to go to Mar-a-Lago for a spa weekend instead of being with her husband on international visits.

The facts are part of Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig’s new book on the lack of funding to sustain the Secret Service. 

“Melania Trump reportedly was ‘blindsided’ and ‘furious’ by reports about Trump’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, so she took an impromptu, two-day trip to Mar-a-Lago,” The Mercury Newsreported. “That quick trip possibly cost American taxpayers at least $64,000 in costs, from traveling on a military C-32A plane, the New York Times reported at the time.” Continue reading.

‘Virtually unheard of’: Why Jared Kushner’s recent Abu Dhabi visit cost American taxpayers almost $13,000

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Although members of former President Donald Trump’s family have been gone from the White House for almost four months, they continue to enjoy the taxpayer-funded protection of the U.S. Secret Service — including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a former White House senior adviser for the Trump Administration. Kushner recently visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and the Daily Beastreported that according to U.S. State Department documents, the Secret Service protection he enjoyed during that trip cost American taxpayers $12,950.

Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin, in a column published on May 17, explains, “If you only got your news from Donald Trump’s new social media website, a.k.a. blog, or by watching the speeches he gives to wedding guests and random passersby at Mar-a-Lago like an old man shouting at an empty blender, you might think he was still president. In fact, he is not, but the U.S. is still paying for Secret Service protection for all of his adult children and their families — which is why, when former first son-in-law Jared Kushner took a little trip to the Middle East last month, it cost taxpayers nearly $13,000.”

Kushner, Levin notes, stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi from May 5-14 and enjoyed Secret Service protection the whole time. Continue reading.

REVEALED: Trump and family stuck taxpayers with bills for undisclosed trips to his overseas golf resorts

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According to a report from the Scotsman, Donald Trump and his family stuck American taxpayers with thousands of dollars in previously undisclosed bills for travel and security costs when they visited the former president’s golf courses overseas.

Based upon Freedom of Information Act requests from the group American Oversight, the report shows that at least £17,000 (approximately $24,000) was paid out for in the ex-president’s first year in office for trips to his resorts in Ireland and Scotland.

According to the report, “Turnberry and Doonbeg received a string of payments throughout 2017,” and that taxpayers were also on the hook for “several thousand pounds for luxury car rentals during a visit to Scotland by Trump’s son Eric.” Continue reading.

Manhattan DA takes financial records from Trump CFO’s former daughter-in-law

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Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Thursday seized several boxes and a laptop computer’s worth of financial records as part of their ongoing investigation into former President Donald Trump’s financial dealings, the Washington Post reports. 

Why it matters: The materials come from Jennifer Weisselberg, who is closely connected to the Trump Organization. She is the ex-wife of employee Barry Weisselberg and the former daughter-in-law of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer as well as its most senior serving non-family member. 

  • The move highlights how deep the investigation aims to go.

Details: Jennifer Weisselberg is cooperating in the investigation and was complying with a grand jury subpoena that asked her to turn over all financial records connected to the Trump Organization and Wollman Rink, an ice rink in Central Park that Barry Weisselberg managed for the Trump Organization, per the Post. Continue reading.

Former Mueller deputy explains how Trump could get nailed in Manhattan DA investigation

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In an interview with New York Magazine this Thursday, the former deputy to Robert Mueller during the probe into Donald Trump’s alleged ties with Russia, Andrew Weissmann, talked about the legacy of the Mueller investigation and the current investigations of Trump’s businesses.

Weissman, a former federal prosecutor, was asked by NY Mag’s Ankush Khardori what he thinks the odds are that anyone ends up criminally prosecuting Trump.

“If it’s going to happen, it’ll be in Manhattan,” Weissmann said. “That seems like the one that has the most legs. But you and I both know, it’s really hard. I’ve been on the inside and listened to people on the outside. It’s really hard unless you’re inside to know whether they’re really going to be able to make the case.” Continue reading.

Trump Organization taps criminal defense attorney as Manhattan prosecutors close in on business dealings

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On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that former President Donald Trump’s family business has retained Ronald Fischetti, a high-powered criminal defense lawyer, as New York prosecutors continue to investigate Trump’s finances.

“Mr. Fischetti, 84 years old, is a former law partner of Mark Pomerantz, the former federal prosecutor working on the investigation for the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Mr. Pomerantz was sworn in as a special assistant district attorney in February and is now on leave from law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP,” reported Corinne Ramey and Rebecca Davis O’Brien.

“Mr. Vance’s office has said it is investigating possible bank, tax or insurance fraud,” said the report. “Prosecutors have subpoenaed information from former President Donald Trump’s banks, lenders, an insurance broker and other parties, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. They are examining financial transactions at Manhattan properties including Mr. Trump’s flagship Trump Tower; Seven Springs, an estate in Westchester, N.Y.; and a hotel in Chicago, The Journal reported.” Continue reading.

NY prosecutors zeroing in on Donald Trump Jr. amid probe into Trump Organization: report

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New York prosecutors are exhausting a substantial amount of resources for its investigative probe into former President Donald Trump’s personal and business finances. Now, according to The Daily Beast, Trump’s son, Don. Jr. and Allen Weisselberg described as “one of the former president’s most trusted officers” are also said to be at the center of the prosecutors’ investigation.

The publication reports that Trump Jr.’s role in the Trump Organization along with his active participation in his father’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign has made him a person of interest for prosecutors.

During his father’s administration, Trump Jr. became a chief MAGA spokesman and campaigner while simultaneously serving as the Trump Organization executive vice president, fronting the business with his brother, Eric Trump. According to his company bio, Trump Jr. is involved in “deal evaluation [and] analysis,” as well as the leasing operation, among other functions. Trump Jr. has also overseen the organization’s international dealings, the growth of which were somewhat hampered due to his father’s ascension to the presidency. Continue reading.

Inside Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s multi-million-dollar profits made while working in government

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Despite the pandemic, which took a toll on many businesses across the United States, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner reportedly made substantial profits during their time working for the U.S. government under former President Donald Trump’s administration.

According to a report published by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the affluent couple’s final financial disclosure reports, which cover the duration of 2020 up to Jan. 20, 2021, signal monetary profits of “$23,791,645 and $120,676,949 in combined outside income.”

The analysis also highlights a number of questionable aspects of Trump’s disclosure reports that centers on “fixed guaranteed payments she arranged to receive from a few entities to prevent a situation in which she would have a stake in their performance while she worked in the White House.” Continue reading.

Trump campaign used secretive shell company led by Jared Kushner to illegally hide spending: complaint

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On Thursday, Business Insider reported that the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center is alleging former President Donald Trump’s family and campaign associates used a shell company to illegally conceal how they were spending election money.

The new allegations against the Trump family are detailed in a supplement to an existing federal complaint.

“The supplement, filed Thursday morning with the Federal Election Commission, is in part based on Insider’s reporting in December about American Made Media Consultants, a secretive shell company that operated inside Trump’s 2020 campaign committee,” said the report. “American Made Media Consultants, the shell company, along with a political firm owned by former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, ‘served as conduits that hid the ultimate recipients of nearly half of the campaign’s overall spending,’ the updated complaint states. ‘These schemes disguised which firms or individuals were working for Trump’s committees, how much and when they were being paid, and the purposes of those payments,’ it continued.” Continue reading.

The $3,000-a-month toilet for the Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner Secret Service detail

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Many U.S. Secret Service agents have stood guard in Washington’s elite Kalorama neighborhood, home over the years to Cabinet secretaries and former presidents. Those agents have had to worry about death threats, secure perimeters and suspicious strangers. But with the arrival of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, they had a new worry: finding a toilet.

Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside the couple’s house, the Secret Service detail assigned to President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job, according to neighbors and law enforcement officials. After resorting to a porta-potty, as well as bathrooms at the nearby home of former president Barack Obama and the not-so-nearby residence of Vice President Pence, the agents finally found a toilet to call their own.

But it came at a cost to U.S. taxpayers. Since September 2017, the federal government has been spending $3,000 a month — more than $100,000 to date — to rent a basement studio, with a bathroom, from a neighbor of the Kushner family. Continue reading.