Thread by @Fahrenthold

We started this year w/ a simple Q: how much taxpayer money has been paid to @realdonaldtrump’s businesses?

The govt provided no answer. Trump Org provided no answer.

So we started digging. So far, we’ve found $970,000.
But...

washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…

But there is still so much we don’t know! Just a couple examples of the remaining mysteries, pulled from the docs we’ve gotten so far...

(Documents shown in my high-tech filing system)

Like: for years, Mar a Lago has charged the Secret Service $396.15 per room, calling that “at cost.”
That’s far higher than a luxury hotel’s usual cost. It’s *8X* higher than the rate Eric Trump claimed he was charging (“like 50 bucks”).
So where did they get that number?

And then there’s Bedminster. @realdonaldtrump’s company rents a cottage to the Secret Service there for $17,000/month (a very high rate for that area). Where did *that* rate come from? And do they rent it year-round, or just in the summer?

Also, look at this charge from @realdonaldtrump’s DC hotel to the Secret Service in June 2017: $33,638 — exactly enough to rent 149 rooms at the Trump hotel rate of $242/night.

Why did they need 139 rooms? The hotel only has 263.

These payments are so interesting b/c they offered @realdonaldtrump and his biz such a clear moral question.
They could set any price, knowing the govt *had* to pay. The only limit was their own sense of what was right — given that this was taxpayers’ money.

I’ll keep you updated as I learn more!