KUALA LUMPUR – Jailed former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his entourage comprising family members spent US$259,724 at the Trump Hotel in Washington D.C., with the Malaysian leader splashing US$10,000 per night on the presidential suite, documents by accounting firm Mazars USA LLP showed.
The US House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which released the documents yesterday, made note of the fact Najib’s stay at the hotel owned by former US president Donald Trump was from September 7 to 15, 2017, during which time Najib was publicly under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over funds stolen and laundered from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) through US financial institutions.
“Prime Minister (Najib) Razak stayed in the hotel’s presidential suite for $10,000 per night, spending $44,562 over three days.
“Despite the ongoing DoJ investigation and other actions by Prime Minister (Najib) Razak that had drawn criticism from human rights groups, President Trump lavished praise on Prime Minister (Najib) Razak during his visit and thanked him for ‘all the investment you have made in the United States’,” house committee chairwoman Carolyn B Maloney said in a press statement.
The documents, obtained from Trump’s former accountants, Mazars, are being revealed as part of the committee’s efforts to develop legislation preventing future US presidents from abusing their position of power for personal gain.
The committee had been probing how various governments, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye and China had “spent more money than previously known” at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.
The spending by foreign governments and Trump’s welcome of leaders of these countries at his hotel had been at “sensitive times” for relations between the US and those governments, the house committee also noted.
Maloney said that as such, the committee has requested the US’ National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) for presidential records to determine whether Trump had “distorted US foreign policy to serve his own financial interests, in violation of his oath of office”.
The documents requested from Nara are in relation to the Trump Hotel and other properties owned by the former president, as well as documents related to 1MDB.
In August, Najib began his 12-year prison sentence after the Federal Court upheld his conviction for corruption involving RM42 million from former 1MDB subsidiary, SRC International Sdn Bhd. – The Vibes, November 15, 2022
