Scandalabra, February 2019

In  Defying the Odds, we discuss  Trump's record of scandal. 

Megan R. Wilson at Bloomberg:

President Donald Trump’s businesses received nearly $3.8 million from political committees during the two-year 2018 campaign cycle, according to the latest disclosure reports. The top political customers: Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican Party.

Trump’s campaign committee spent more than a million dollars at Trump businesses during the midterm elections, including renting space at the Trump Tower in New York City, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Throughout 2017 and 2018, Trump hotels in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington and golf clubs in Virginia, Los Angeles, Miami and Bedminster, N.J., cashed in as well, as venues for events by political groups large and small. Candidates and political operatives also billed hotel stays to Trump’s network of luxury resorts.

At Vanity Fair, Emily Jane Fox writes about the inaugural committee:

In December, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that prosecutors are examining the committee’s spending, and investigating whether foreign donors from nations including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates funneled money to the committee in an effort to influence U.S. policy. On Monday, the inaugural committee received a subpoena from the S.D.N.Y. requesting documents related to spending and donors, vendors, and benefits handed out, as well as documents related to a wealthy donor who had once registered as a foreign agent working on behalf of the Sri Lankan government. The Journal reported that prosecutors have asked Gates about the inaugural fund’s spending and its donors.

 Joshua Partlow, Nick Miroff and David A. Fahrenthold at WP: 

The Washington Post spoke with 16 men and women from Costa Rica and other Latin American countries, including six in Santa Teresa de Cajon, who said they were employed at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster. All of them said that they worked for Trump without legal status — and that their managers knew.

The former employees who still live in New Jersey provided pay slips documenting their work at the Bedminster club. They identified friends and relatives in Costa Rica who also were employed at the course. In Costa Rica, The Post located former workers in two regions who provided detailed accounts of their time at the Bedminster property and shared memorabilia they had kept, such as Trump-branded golf tees, as well as photos of themselves at the club.

Brad Heath at USA Today writes about the Mar-a-Lago connection:

Since he took office, Trump has appointed at least eight people who identified themselves as current or former members of his club to senior posts in his administration. USA TODAY identified five of those appointees in mid-2017, prompting criticism from ethics watchdogs that the selections blurred the boundary between his public duties and his private financial interests

Jonathan O'Connell, David A. Fahrenthold and Mike DeBonis at WP:

Executives from the telecom giant T-Mobile — which last year asked the Trump administration to approve its megamerger with Sprint — have booked at least 52 nights at President Trump’s hotel in the District since then, even more than previously reported, according to newly obtained records from the hotel.

The revelations come as political scrutiny of the proposed deal is mounting on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) issued letters demanding information about the T-Mobile executives’ stays and whether Trump was informed of them. The issue is likely to come up at House subcommittee hearings on the merger next week.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that “VIP Arrivals” lists — issued by the Trump International Hotel daily to its staff — indicated that T-Mobile executives had stayed repeatedly at Trump’s hotel. On the day after the merger was announced, for instance, the lists showed nine T-Mobile executives were expected to check in.

Now, The Post has obtained VIP arrivals lists for additional days last year, which showed five more bookings at the hotel by T-Mobile executives, including chief executive John Legere. Those bookings — in October and December of last year — added 14 nights to the 38 previously reported.

In addition, another Trump hotel document gave the first indication of the rates that T-Mobile executives paid for their rooms.

This document showed that when Legere stayed at Trump’s hotel for two nights last month, his room had a rate of $2,246 per night.