The Washington Post: Saudi-funded lobbyists have booked 500 rooms at the Trump Hotel

Saudi-funded lobbyists paid cash for a 500-room reservation at a hotel owned by US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, within a month of his 2016 presidential election, according to tour operators and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The Washington Post said the lobbyists had booked a large number of rooms in Washington DC as part of an unconventional campaign that offered free flights to Washington for American veterans and sent them to Congress to persuade members of the legislature to vote against any bill The Saudis oppose it.

According to the report, prepared by two of its editors charged with covering the Trump family's news and business activities, pro-Saudi lobbyists previously hosted veterans in northern Virginia, but transferred most of its work to the Trump International Hotel in Washington in December 2016.

In total, these lobbies spent more than $ 270,000 to accommodate six groups of visiting veterans at the Trump Hotel, which is still owned by the US president.

Violation of the Constitution
The bookings resulted in two cases being brought before the federal court for Trump's violation of the constitution for illegally receiving funds from foreign governments.

Records show that the hotel's average cost per night is $ 768. The organizers say it chose the Trump Hotel for the simple reason that it offered a discount on its prices and room availability and not for the president.

Some of the veterans who stayed at the Trump Hotel say that the lobbyists have hidden the fact that the Saudis have a hand in hosting them. They are now asking whether they have been used twice: the first to send messages to Congress and the second to provide a commercial service to Trump.

The Corvis MSL Group, which represented the Saudi government in the United States, paid the cost of transporting air veterans to the organizers of the flights, the newspaper said, citing lobbying data forms.

The commercial dealings have become fertile ground in the two cases, which claim that Trump violated the foreign reward clause in the US Constitution by accepting funds from foreign governments.

The State Attorney of Maryland and the First District Court called 13 Tramp commercial entities and 18 competing firms, mostly for foreign exchange data at the Trump Hotel.

The Justice Department, which defends Trump in the two cases against him, says the US Constitution does not prohibit normal business transactions.

The transactions will be scrutinized next year by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

Democrats said they wanted to understand the nature of Trump's commercial relations with the Saudi government following the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, more than two months ago.