Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Trump administration to turn over records of its golf club members after a USA TODAY investigation that “raised the possibility that members of the president’s private clubs could receive special access to the president not available to private citizens.” Four of Trump’s golf courses in New York and New Jersey were recently vandalized with slogans etched into putting greens, and a suspect is in custody.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee asked the Trump administration on September 14 to turn over the names of visitors to President Trump’s private clubs and the identities of his golfing partners after a USA TODAY investigation into the membership at Trump’s golf courses.
That investigation found that members of the golf clubs Trump visited most often as president—in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia—include at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials. Two-thirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online.
Membership lists at Trump’s private clubs are secret. USA TODAY found the names of about 4,500 members by reviewing social media and a public website golfers use to track their handicaps and researched hundreds to determine whether they had business with the government.
In a letter to the Department of Homeland Security’s acting secretary, Elaine Duke, Wyden said USA TODAY‘s examination “raised the possibility that members of the president’s private clubs could receive special access to the president not available to private citizens.”
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Joanne Talbot, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the agency does not comment on correspondence from members of Congress but would “respond appropriately,” USA TODAY reported
Wyden asked the administration to provide the following by October 13:
• Logs of all visitors and guests to Trump resorts and golf clubs during his presidential visits
• The names of Trump’s golfing partners during his time in office
• The names of club visitors and members who work for foreign governments or have ties to enterprises owned by foreign governments
• Anyone who needed Secret Service screening to visit a Trump property
Wyden, whose committee oversees tax and international trade issues, said “transparency about the president’s ties to business leaders, trade groups and foreign officials are critical to successful trade policy.” Trump has visited his private clubs on more than a quarter of the days of his presidency. While there, he routinely mixes his visits with government business, entertaining foreign leaders such as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Fla., resort.
Previous Democratic requests for the public release of White House and Mar-a-Lago visitors’ logs have been rebuffed, prompting several senators to introduce the Make Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act (MAR-A-LAGO Act) to force the release of logs for the White House or other locations where the administration conducts official business, USA TODAY reported.
The administration and executives in Trump’s businesses, however, have responded to inquiries from the bipartisan leadership of the House Oversight Committee on issues ranging from ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s security clearance to the Trump Organization’s plan to track foreign profits at the president’s hotels, USA TODAY reported.
This week, the public is slated to get another glimpse into the world of a Trump exclusive club. The administration faces a noon deadline Friday to comply with a court order to release information about people who visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago during his trips there between his January swearing-in and early March. The release is the result of a lawsuit brought by three watchdog groups, USA TODAY reported.
Four Trump Organization golf courses were vandalized with slogans critical of the administration etched into putting greens. Police have a suspect in custody, Bloomberg News reported.
Nine greens at Trump courses in Ferry Point, N.Y., Hudson Valley, N.Y., Westchester, N.Y., and Bedminster, N.J., were damaged in similar acts of vandalism, according to a person familiar with the incident. The Trump Organization said a suspect has been identified.
“We take all acts of vandalism very seriously and would like to thank local law enforcement officials for their efforts,” the Trump Organization said Tuesday in a statement. “The individual responsible is in custody and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Robert Wolf, a spokesman for Westchester County District Attorney Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr., said his office is investigating an incident Sunday at Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. He said a person will be in court on September 27 in connection with the incident but declined to identify them or specify the charges, Bloomberg reported.
The Trump Organization didn’t disclose when the damage occurred or whether the president was present when the vandal struck. The U.S. Secret Service referred a question about the incident to local authorities in Westchester, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. White House communications director Hope Hicks said Monday she wasn’t aware of the incident, Bloomberg reported.
At the president’s club at Bedminster, the vandal apparently used a chemical to write messages on the green. One was an adapted soliloquy from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, who’s titular hero was known for his ruthless political ambition, Bloomberg reported.
Other messages written into the greens include “President Pence has a bad ring to it,” “If Jesus came back tomorrow he wouldn’t be an evangelical,” and “Product of too much Propecia,” in an apparent reference to the president’s hair, according to photos of some of the damage seen by Bloomberg.
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