Companies linked to former US President Donald Trump received at least $7.8 million (about €7.12 million) in payments from 20 foreign governments. According to what Democratic investigators in Congress reported on Thursday, the transactions took place during the four years that Trump spent in the White House (from 2017 to 2021).
The Democratic House Oversight Committee estimates that the payments detailed in the 156-page report are only a fraction of the payments made to Trump and his family during his administration. The list of countries includes China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Malaysia.
“These countries spent money – often lavishly – on apartments and hotels belonging to Donald Trump’s properties, enriching those who made foreign policy decisions,” they say.
The Trump campaign has not yet responded to Reuters' requests for comment.
Trump made his fortune running several companies before the election he won in 2016, but, unlike what has always happened in the USA, he did not divest himself from personal businesses when taking on new roles – instead, he left his children, Now they are adults, managing them.
Shortly after Trump's election in 2016, Congress was already investigating a potential conflict of interest, in light of possible violations of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. This only allows gifts from foreign countries to be approved by a person holding elected federal office if approved by Congress.
That investigation led to a long legal dispute, which ended in a settlement in 2022, when Trump's accounting firm began producing the requested documents. When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives early last year, the committee stopped requiring the accounting firm to provide these documents and a district court put an end to the lawsuit.
According to congressional investigators, Trump's accounting firm failed to provide documents related to at least 80% of the former president's business entities. The report refers to four properties, that is, less than 1% of the 558 business entities that Trump owned, directly or indirectly, while he was president.
The release of the report comes as Trump seeks to reclaim the presidency in the 2024 elections. Trump, the leading candidate to secure the Republican nomination, is expected to face incumbent President Joe Biden, in a repeat of the 2020 campaign.
Republicans in the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden, focusing primarily on his son Hunter. They claim that Biden and his family unjustifiably benefited from political actions (between 2009 and 2017) in which the then Vice President participated. Republicans also allege that the Justice Department interfered in an investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes. The White House denied any wrongdoing.
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