Donald Trump’s company charges the Secret Service for the rooms agents use while protecting him at his luxury properties – billing US taxpayers at rates as high as $650 (£500) per night, according to federal records and people who have seen receipts.

Those charges, compiled here for the first time, show the US president has an unprecedented – and largely hidden – business relationship with his own government.

When Mr Trump visits his clubs in Palm Beach, Florida, and Bedminster, New Jersey, the service needs space to post guards and store equipment.

Mr Trump’s company says it charges only minimal fees. But Secret Service records do not show that.

At Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, the Secret Service was charged the $650 (£500) rate dozens of times in 2017, and a different rate, $396.15 (£305) dozens more times in 2018, according to documents from Mr Trump’s visits.

Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Show all 26 1 /26 Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Donald Trump Accused of abusing his office by pressing the Ukrainian president in a July phone call to help dig up dirt on Joe Biden, who may be his Democratic rival in the 2020 election. He also believes that Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails - a key factor in the 2016 election - may be in Ukraine, although it is not clear why. EPA Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal The Whistleblower Believed to be a CIA agent who spent time at the White House, his complaint was largely based on second and third-hand accounts from worried White House staff. Although this is not unusual for such complaints, Trump and his supporters have seized on it to imply that his information is not reliable. Expected to give evidence to Congress voluntarily and in secret. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal The Second Whistleblower The lawyer for the first intelligence whistleblower is also representing a second whistleblower regarding the President's actions. Attorney Mark Zaid said that he and other lawyers on his team are now representing the second person, who is said to work in the intelligence community and has first-hand knowledge that supports claims made by the first whistleblower and has spoken to the intelligence community's inspector general. The second whistleblower has not yet filed their own complaint, but does not need to to be considered an official whistleblower. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Rudy Giuliani Former mayor of New York, whose management of the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001 won him worldwide praise. As Trump’s personal attorney he has been trying to find compromising material about the president’s enemies in Ukraine in what some have termed a “shadow” foreign policy. In a series of eccentric TV appearances he has claimed that the US state department asked him to get involved. Giuliani insists that he is fighting corruption on Trump’s behalf and has called himself a “hero”. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Volodymyr Zelensky The newly elected Ukrainian president - a former comic actor best known for playing a man who becomes president by accident - is seen frantically agreeing with Trump in the partial transcript of their July phone call released by the White House. With a Russian-backed insurgency in the east of his country, and the Crimea region seized by Vladimir Putin in 2014, Zelensky will have been eager to please his American counterpart, who had suspended vital military aid before their phone conversation. He says there was no pressure on him from Trump to do him the “favour” he was asked for. Zelensky appeared at an awkward press conference with Trump in New York during the United Nations general assembly, looking particularly uncomfortable when the American suggested he take part in talks with Putin. AFP/Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Mike Pence The vice-president was not on the controversial July call to the Ukrainian president but did get a read-out later. However, Trump announced that Pence had had “one or two” phone conversations of a similar nature, dragging him into the crisis. Pence himself denies any knowledge of any wrongdoing and has insisted that there is no issue with Trump’s actions. It has been speculated that Trump involved Pence as an insurance policy - if both are removed from power the presidency would go to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, something no Republican would allow. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Rick Perry Trump reportedly told a meeting of Republicans that he made the controversial call to the Ukrainian president at the urging of his own energy secretary, Rick Perry, and that he didn’t even want to. The president apparently said that Perry wanted him to talk about liquefied natural gas - although there is no mention of it in the partial transcript of the phone call released by the White House. It is thought that Perry will step down from his role at the end of the year. Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Joe Biden The former vice-president is one of the frontrunners to win the Democratic nomination, which would make him Trump’s opponent in the 2020 election. Trump says that Biden pressured Ukraine to sack a prosecutor who was investigating an energy company that Biden’s son Hunter was on the board of, refusing to release US aid until this was done. However, pressure to fire the prosecutor came on a wide front from western countries. It is also believed that the investigation into the company, Burisma, had long been dormant. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Hunter Biden Joe Biden’s son has been accused of corruption by the president because of his business dealings in Ukraine and China. However, Trump has yet to produce any evidence of corruption and Biden’s lawyer insists he has done nothing wrong. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal William Barr The attorney-general, who proved his loyalty to Trump with his handling of the Mueller report, was mentioned in the Ukraine call as someone president Volodymyr Zelensky should talk to about following up Trump’s preoccupations with the Biden’s and the Clinton emails. Nancy Pelosi has accused Barr of being part of a “cover-up of a cover-up”. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Mike Pompeo The secretary of state initially implied he knew little about the Ukraine phone call - but it later emerged that he was listening in at the time. He has since suggested that asking foreign leaders for favours is simply how international politics works. Gordon Sondland testified that Pompeo was "in the loop" and knew what was happening in Ukraine. Pompeo has been criticised for not standing up for diplomats under his command when they were publicly criticised by the president. AFP via Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Nancy Pelosi The Democratic Speaker of the House had long resisted calls from within her own party to back a formal impeachment process against the president, apparently fearing a backlash from voters. On September 24, amid reports of the Ukraine call and the day before the White House released a partial transcript of it, she relented and announced an inquiry, saying: “The president must be held accountable. No one is above the law.” Getty Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Adam Schiff Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, one of the three committees leading the inquiry. He was criticized by Republicans for giving what he called a “parody” of the Ukraine phone call during a hearing, with Trump and others saying he had been pretending that his damning characterisation was a verbatim reading of the phone call. He has also been criticised for claiming that his committee had had no contact with the whistleblower, only for it to emerge that the intelligence agent had contacted a staff member on the committee for guidance before filing the complaint. The Washington Post awarded Schiff a “four Pinocchios” rating, its worst rating for a dishonest statement. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman Florida-based businessmen and Republican donors Lev Parnas (pictured with Rudy Giuliani) and Igor Fruman were arrested on suspicion of campaign finance violations at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC on 9 October. Separately the Associated Press has reported that they were both involved in efforts to replace the management of Ukraine's gas company, Naftogaz, with new bosses who would steer lucrative contracts towards companies controlled by Trump allies. There is no suggestion of any criminal activity in these efforts. Reuters Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal William Taylor The most senior US diplomat in Ukraine and the former ambassador there. As one of the first two witnesses in the public impeachment hearings, Taylor dropped an early bombshell by revealing that one of his staff – later identified as diplomat David Holmes – overheard a phone conversation in which Donald Trump could be heard asking about “investigations” the very day after asking the Ukrainian president to investigate his political enemies. Taylor expressed his concern at reported plans to withhold US aid in return for political smears against Trump’s opponents, saying: “It's one thing to try to leverage a meeting in the White House. It's another thing, I thought, to leverage security assistance -- security assistance to a country at war, dependent on both the security assistance and the demonstration of support." Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal George Kent A state department official who appeared alongside William Taylor wearing a bow tie that was later mocked by the president. He accused Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, of leading a “campaign of lies” against Marie Yovanovitch, who was forced out of her job as US ambassador to Ukraine for apparently standing in the way of efforts to smear Democrats. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Marie Yovanovitch One of the most striking witnesses to give evidence at the public hearings, the former US ambassador to Ukraine received a rare round of applause as she left the committee room after testifying. Canadian-born Yovanovitch was attacked on Twitter by Donald Trump while she was actually testifying, giving Democrats the chance to ask her to respond. She said she found the attack “very intimidating”. Trump had already threatened her in his 25 July phone call to the Ukrainian president saying: “She’s going to go through some things.” Yovanovitch said she was “shocked, appalled and devastated” by the threat and by the way she was forced out of her job without explanation. REUTERS Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Alexander Vindman A decorated Iraq War veteran and an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, Lt Col Vindman began his evidence with an eye-catching statement about the freedoms America afforded him and his family to speak truth to power without fear of punishment. One of the few witnesses to have actually listened to Trump’s 25 July call with the Ukrainian president, he said he found the conversation so inappropriate that he was compelled to report it to the White House counsel. Trump later mocked him for wearing his military uniform and insisting on being addressed by his rank. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Jennifer Williams A state department official acting as a Russia expert for vice-president Mike Pence, Ms Williams also listened in on the 25 July phone call. She testified that she found it “unusual” because it focused on domestic politics in terms of Trump asking a foreign leader to investigate his political opponents. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Kurt Volker The former special envoy to Ukraine was one of the few people giving evidence who was on the Republican witness list although what he had to say may not have been too helpful to their cause. He dismissed the idea that Joe Biden had done anything corrupt, a theory spun without evidence by the president and his allies. He said that he thought the US should be supporting Ukraine’s reforms and that the scheme to find dirt on Democrats did not serve the national interest. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Tim Morrison An expert on the National Security Council and another witness on the Republican list. He testified that he did not think the president had done anything illegal but admitted that he feared it would create a political storm if it became public. He said he believed the moving the record of the controversial 25 July phone call to a top security server had been an innocent mistake. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Gordon Sondland In explosive testimony, one of the men at the centre of the scandal got right to the point in his opening testimony: “Was there a quid pro quo? Yes,” said the US ambassador to the EU who was a prime mover in efforts in Ukraine to link the release of military aid with investigations into the president’s political opponents. He said that everyone knew what was going on, implicating vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo. The effect of his evidence is perhaps best illustrated by the reaction of Mr Trump who went from calling Sondland a “great American” a few weeks earlier to claiming that he barely knew him. AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Laura Cooper A Pentagon official, Cooper said Ukrainian officials knew that US aid was being withheld before it became public knowledge in August – undermining a Republican argument that there can’t have been a quid pro quo between aid and investigations if the Ukrainians didn’t know that aid was being withheld. Getty Images Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal David Hale The third most senior official at the state department. Hale testified about the treatment of Marie Yovanovitch and the smear campaign that culminated in her being recalled from her posting as US ambassador to Ukraine. He said: “I believe that she should have been able to stay at post and continue to do the outstanding work.” EPA Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal Fiona Hill Arguably the most confident and self-possessed of the witnesses in the public hearings phase, the Durham-born former NSC Russia expert began by warning Republicans not to keep repeating Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories. In a distinctive northeastern English accent, Dr Hill went on to describe how she had argued with Gordon Sondland about his interference in Ukraine matters until she realised that while she and her colleagues were focused on national security, Sondland was “being involved in a domestic political errand”. She said: “I did say to him, ‘Ambassador Sondland, Gordon, this is going to blow up’. And here we are.” AP Trump impeachment: Who's who in the Ukraine scandal David Holmes The Ukraine-based diplomat described being in a restaurant in Kiev with Gordon Sondland while the latter phoned Donald Trump. Holmes said he could hear the president on the other end of the line – because his voice was so “loud and distinctive” and because Sondland had to hold the phone away from his ear – asking about the “investigations” and whether the Ukrainian president would cooperate. REUTERS

And at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, the Secret Service was charged $17,000 (£13,000) a month to use a three-bedroom cottage on the property, an unusually high rent for homes in that area, according to receipts from 2017. Mr Trump’s company billed the government even for days when Mr Trump wasn’t there.

These payments appear to contradict the Trump Organisation’s own statements about what it charges members of his government entourage. “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free – meaning, like, cost for housekeeping,” Mr Trump’s son Eric Trump said last year in a Yahoo Finance interview.

The full extent of the Secret Service’s payments to Trump’s company is not known. The Secret Service has not listed them in public databases of federal spending, as is usually required for payments over $10,000 (£7,700).

Instead, documents have come out piecemeal, through public records requests from news organisations and watchdog groups. The Washington Post compiled available records and found 103 payments from the Secret Service to Mr Trump’s company dated between January 2017 and April 2018.

The records show more than $471,000 (£364,000) in payments from taxpayers to Mr Trump’s companies. But – because these records cover only a fraction of Mr cTrump’s travel during a fraction of his term – the actual total is likely to be higher.

“It is more than a little disconcerting, knowing this is going on, and not knowing what the actual numbers are,” said Jordan Libowitz, of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “That’s kind of crazy that we know the president is benefiting from the presidency, and we do not know how. We do not know how many taxpayer dollars are in his pocket.”

The White House did not respond to questions about Mr Trump’s knowledge of these payments.

In a statement, the Secret Service said that its spending “balances operational security with judicious allocation of resources.” By law, Secret Service agents are exempt from the government’s usual per diem spending limits while they are protecting the president. The Secret Service did not respond to a question about why the purchases weren’t listed in public databases.

Loading....

Mr Trump still owns his company. In response to questions from The Washington Post, a company spokesperson said Mar-a-Lago does not charge the Secret Service $650 (£500) per room but did not address whether it had charged that rate in the past. The company also noted that the rental cottage at Bedminster contains “multiple rooms and [includes] numerous common spaces.”

The company did not answer questions about the rates it charges the Secret Service now.

“We provide the rooms at cost and could make far more money renting them to members or guests,” Eric Trump, the Trump Organisation’s executive vice president, said in a statement. He gave no details about how the company calculates the “at-cost” price.

During the 2016 campaign, candidate Donald Trump told voters – if he was elected – he would not have time for travel.

“I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done,” Mr Trump told the Hill in a June 2015 interview. “I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.”

But since taking office, President Trump has spent more than 342 days – a third of his entire presidency – at his private clubs and hotels, according to a tally by The Post. Mr Trump has said he works during these trips.

The Secret Service always comes with him, as it does with all presidents. But the Trump Organisation has assured the public that it is giving the government a great deal. Last year, Eric Trump told Yahoo Finance that when his father does visit his properties, he is legally required to charge something.

Eric Trump did not say what law required Mr Trump to charge his own government, and the Secret Service did not respond to questions asking what law he was referring to. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, whose internal directives state: “DHS may accept gifts to carry out program functions.”

“If he stays at one of his places, the government actually ... saves a fortune because, if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like 50 bucks,” Eric Trump said.

That appears to be wrong.

The Secret Service is required to tell Congress twice a year about what it spends to protect President Trump at his properties.

But since 2016, it has only filed two of the required six reports, according to congressional offices. The reasons, according to Secret Service officials: key personnel left and nobody picked up the job.

Even in those two reports, the lines for Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago were blank.

The Secret Service officials said only that they abide by the law, but they did not elaborate. They are probably referring to a provision that requires them to tell Congress about “permanent” costs. They may not consider anything they’ve done at either club permanent.

Senate Democrats have asked the Trump administration to provide more details on the costs of Trump’s travel as part of negotiations over a bill governing the Secret Service. But Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, has told the Senate committee that he opposes a requirement to deliver those details until December 2020 at the earliest, which falls after the election.

“They’ve really stonewalled us,” said Senator Tom Udall, Democrat for New Mexico. “He’s trying to hide the details from the public, because he knows how bad it looks. That’s the truth of it. He’s a billionaire, but we’re spending millions of dollars to support his for-profit clubs and for-profit businesses.”

The Post sought to quantify one part of that spending – the money that goes directly to Trump’s own businesses.

Most of the 103 payments discovered by The Post went to just three Trump properties: the Trump International Hotel in Washington and the president’s clubs at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster.

They showed that Mr Trump had quickly shattered past precedent. Other recent presidents have allowed the Secret Service to use their properties – George HW Bush’s compound in Maine, Bill Clinton’s home in suburban New York, George W Bush’s ranch in Texas – for free, according to the Secret Service and spokespeople for those former presidents.

The Post could find only one other recent example of a president or vice president charging his own Secret Service rent. Former vice president Joe Biden charged $2,200 a month for a cottage on his property in Delaware. Unlike the payments to Mr Trump, Mr Biden’s payments were listed in public spending databases. Mr Biden was paid a total of $171,600 over six years.

Mr Trump exceeded that total within three months, records show.

In February 2017, for instance, Mr Trump made his first presidential trip to Mar-a-Lago – a for-profit club with guest rooms and suites available to members. The Secret Service sent dozens of people. Most of them stayed at other hotels nearby.

But they also rented at least three rooms at Mar-a-Lago, records show.

The rate: $650 (£500) per night, according to two people who saw receipts. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on the matter.

That was more than triple the normal limit on federal spending for a hotel room in that area, which was $182 (£141). It was even more than what the State Department paid for rooms at Mar-a-Lago around the same time, which was $520 (£118) to $546 (£422).

“The operational needs of the Secret Service can differ from those in the Department of State,” a Secret Service spokeswoman said, to explain why their rooms had cost more than the State Department’s.

Presidents are exempt from federal conflict-of-interest rules. And the Secret Service is exempt from hotel-room spending limits.

So Mr Trump’s company was free to charge what it wanted.

And, according to one former senior administration official with direct knowledge of the operation, his club often treated the Secret Service like any other customer. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships with the Trump administration.

“The club wanted to charge the rack rate,” the former official said, saying that sometimes officials had to call Eric Trump to lobby for a lower rate. “The club managers were not always that accommodating.”

In 2018, the room rate charged to the Secret Service was lower: $396.15 (£306) per night, according to public records obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch. One possible reason for the drop in price: the 2018 receipts list the Secret Service as an “honorary member” of the club, which could have made it eligible for a member discount.

But in 2018, receipts show, the Secret Service tended to book more rooms and stay longer than they had in 2017 – in one case, when Trump came for two weekends in a row, the Secret Service rented four rooms for nine nights apiece. They stayed all week, even while Mr Trump was gone.

In Bedminster, records show, the Secret Service went further: It paid not by the day – but for a whole month at a time. The Secret Service rented the club’s “Sarazen Cottage,” a three-bedroom building near Trump’s own villa, from July 1 to 1 October 2017.

The former senior administration official said the cottage was needed to store equipment and provided living space for five or six agents. So – even though Trump was only there about a third of the time – the equipment was there every day. So they paid every day.

“You can’t rent the villa part of the year to someone else because it has to stay a Secret Service space,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve relationships in the Trump administration.

The Trump club does not publish data on the normal rates for these cottages – even to its own members. They are told to contact management for a quote, according to member brochures obtained by The Post.

But the rate of $17,000 (£13000) per month seems unusually high for a monthly rental. Since fall 2017, there have been 100 rental listings for homes with three or more bedrooms in Bedminster, according to the website Zillow.com. None were anywhere near Mr Trump’s rate; the average rental rate was $3,400, and the highest rent listed on Zillow was $8,500. President Trump charged twice that.

It is unclear whether the monthly payments to Trump’s company began earlier or continued after the date of the last record. Documents obtained by Property of the People – a watchdog group set up to seek documents on Trump’s administration – also appear to show the $17,000 (£13000) per month rate being paid in May 2017.

And former housekeepers from the Bedminster club have said that the Secret Service continued to use the cottage long after these records end, through 2018.

Another visitor to the club – who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve access to the club – reported seeing Secret Service agents in the cottage as recently as December.

The Secret Service did not answer questions about whether it was still paying.

The many gaps in the Secret Service data leave many unanswered questions.

Among them: Why were these payments to Trump’s clubs not listed in public databases of federal spending, such as usaspending.gov? The Secret Service has publicly listed many other transactions related to Mr Trump’s stays at his clubs – rentals of golf carts, tents and portable toilets.

But it has not listed any of these payments to President Trump’s own businesses.

“It is a surprise” that these payments are not listed, said Sean Moulton of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. Without public data about payments to Mr Trump, he said, “the public doesn’t even know the questions they should be asking.”

Also: Why did the Secret Service spend so much at Trump’s DC hotel, a place where – unlike Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago – Mr Trump has not stayed overnight since taking office? In response to records request from NBC News, the Department of Homeland Security released a listing of 39 payments there during Trump’s first year, totalling $159,000 (£123,000).

The documents do not give the reasons for those payments – or give the rate that Mr Trump’s company charged.