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1/ We published a story today about @WhiteHouse & gov't spending at Mar-a-Lago, @realDonaldTrump's Florida estate. To do it, we went through 501 pages of receipts + emails provided by transparency group @PropOTP. Here are those records & the highlights: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
2/ Back in April and May 2017, the State Department and Mar-a-Lago were going back and forth about a $200,000, 4-yr contract for room costs at the club, to be paid by taxpayers. Mar-a-Lago rejected that deal, citing federal competitive bidding rules: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
3/ So the @StateDept did something unusual: It ordered a special Citibank travel card to be used exclusively by federal employees at Mar-a-Lago for rooms. Everyone we spoke to said it's *technically* legal but exceedingly rare: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
4/ Of course, with anything new, problems can arise. And they did at the State Dept. The gov't couldn't pay Mar-a-Lago for meeting room space above the $3,500 limit laid out in federal contracting rules: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
5/ So when Mar-a-Lago asked for payment above $3,500, the government was forced to ask for a 10% discount. It took months of haggling but, eventually, the @StateDept got the slightly reduced rate: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
6/ Mar-a-Lago could also only charge up to $10k on its billing system, causing problems when the gov't owed more than that. The State Dept. found this billing issue very odd: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
7/ A State Department contracting officer involved in all of this was definitely exhausted w/ all of this Mar-a-Lago business. He called it a "headache:" documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
8/ Then there's the $1,005.60 bar bill Mar-a-Lago charged to the White House. That's 1 bar bill but we also don't know what other charges might have been incurred by the WH since they aren't subject to FOIA: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
9/ 2 last things: The gov't did find much cheaper hotels for federal employees to stay at near Mar-a-Lago. Here's a full manifest of where everyone stayed for the Chinese delegation weekend back in April 2017: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
10/ The rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn and Tidelines Ocean Resort were hundreds of dollars cheaper than Mar-a-Lago. And yet at least 24 White House aides stayed at MAL, in suites and oceanfront cabanas: documentcloud.org/documents/5982…
11/ Last thing. Big s/o to @PropOTP for getting these records. Reminder: The State Department has 1,800 pages of records left to process and release to us as part of a court order.
12/ Have any tips on spending at Trump-owned properties? Make sure to email them to trump@propublica.org or message me directly!
