A government transparency group vowed on Friday to continue a court battle to open up visitor logs at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, after the administration provided only the names of Japanese staff who attended a February visit from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, one of three government transparency groups that sued the Department of Homeland Security for the information, obtained and released the records on Friday.
The Justice Department said in a letter to CREW that the records were responsive to the group’s request under the Freedom of Information Act. “The government seriously misrepresented their intentions to both us and the court,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “This was spitting in the eye of transparency. We will be fighting this in court.”
CREW and other ethics specialists have criticized Trump for not divesting from his business holdings -- including Mar-a-Lago and other properties he visits -- saying they provide an avenue for those seeking influence to curry the president’s favor.
This kind of arrogance on the part of Trump and his businesses will ultimately only bring more heat in their direction.
And that last part is becoming a real issue now that we are learning just how much Trump himself is benefiting financially from using Mar-a-Lago as his "winter White House."
Courtesy of WaPo:
On a weekend in early March, during one of seven trips by Trump and his White House entourage to the posh Palm Beach property since the inauguration, the government paid the Trump-owned club to reserve at least one bedroom for two nights.
The charge, according to a newly disclosed receipt reviewed by The Washington Post, was $1,092.
The amount was based on a per-night price of $546, which, according to the bill, was Mar-a-Lago’s “rack rate,” the hotel industry term for a standard, non-discounted price.
The receipt, which was obtained in recent days by the transparency advocacy group Property of the People and verified by The Post, offers one of the first concrete signs that Trump’s use of Mar-a-Lago as the “Winter White House” has resulted in taxpayer funds flowing directly into the coffers of his private business.
I am very hopeful that these groups really turn the screws on Trump and bring transparency to what is now perhaps the most secretive administration since Richard Nixon's.
Source http://ift.tt/2xaLSfd
