KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 15): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his entourage spent at least US$259,724 (RM1.19 million) at the Trump Hotel during his visit to the White House in September 2017.

In a statement on Monday (Nov 14), the US House Committee on Oversight and Reform said Najib stayed in the hotel’s presidential suite for US$10,000 per night, spending US$44,562 over three days.

The committee said that despite the ongoing Department Of Justice investigation and other actions by Najib that had drawn criticism from human rights groups, then-president Donald Trump lavished praise on him during his visit and thanked him for “all the investment you have made in the United States”.

The Malaysian government later prosecuted Najib for his role in the money laundering scandal involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Rep Carolyn B Maloney, said she had sent a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requesting presidential records to determine whether Trump distorted US foreign policy to serve his own financial interests.

Maloney said she was releasing the first set of documents revealing that, during the same time periods they were seeking to influence American foreign policy, six nations including Malaysia spent more than US$750,000 at Trump’s hotel-renting lavish rooms for up to US$10,000 per night.

“These documents sharply call into question the extent to which President Trump was guided by his personal financial interest while in office rather than the best interests of the American people.

“These documents, which the Committee continues to obtain from Mazars, will inform our legislative efforts to ensure that future presidents do not abuse their position of power for personal gain,” she said.

Maloney said the request came as the Committee released new documents obtained from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP (Mazars), revealing that foreign governments — including the governments of Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Türkiye, and China — spent more money than previously known at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC, and did so at sensitive times for those countries’ relations with the US.

The documents were obtained from a subpoena issued by the late chairman Elijah E Cummings during the 116th Congress regarding investigations into Trump’s conflicts of interest, inadequate financial disclosures, and violations of the Emoluments Clauses.

The committee said that in light of these new revelations, Maloney has requested records from NARA regarding Trump’s conduct in office and foreign governments’ attempts to influence the Trump Administration, including all documents and communications related to the Trump Hotel or hotel stays at other Trump-owned properties, foreign payments to the Trump Hotel or other Trump-owned properties, including documents related to the 1MDB investigations, and more by Nov 28, 2022.