Donald Trump’s historic election to the presidency represented a number of firsts. It was the first time, for instance, that someone became president after bragging that he could gun someone down in broad daylight and not lose any votes. It was also the first time someone had been elected president after telling Americans to check out a sex tape, or accused his opponent’s father of palling around with J.F.K.’s assassin, or mocked a disabled reporter at a rally. And crucially, Trump was the first president to own a chain of eponymous for-profit hotels, from which he refused to divest, including one located less than three-quarters of a mile from the White House. Suddenly, here was an opportunity for foreign governments and other interested parties to literally line the president’s pockets, without having to awkwardly show up at the Oval Office with a duffel bag full of cash. For some, though, simply bribing the president to curry favor wasn‘t enough. Instead, they decided to take an unseemly situation and make it—and we’re approximating here—a thousand times sleazier.

We speak, of course, of the new report by The Washington Post about a group of lobbyists funded by the Saudi Arabian government who booked around 500 nights at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, and filled the rooms with unsuspecting U.S. veterans, as part of an alleged scheme to send Saudi money into the Trump Organization‘s coffers. Per the Post, beginning in late 2016, Saudi-funded lobbyists began offering free trips to D.C. to military veterans, under the guise of having them protest the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), a new law, “backed by the families of Sept. 11 victims, [that] opened the door to costly litigation alleging that the Saudi government bore some blame” for the attacks. (The veterans were told the law could cause other countries to retaliate, and might lead to vets being prosecuted overseas for actions their units had taken while at war.)

But according to many who attended these trips, lobbying Congress appeared to be an afterthought, given that participants were never briefed about how the law should be be amended, or given policy briefings to leave with lawmakers. Also, they were sent to Washington five times between January and February 2017, “when the issue was largely dormant,” for “dead-end meetings with legislators who had made up their minds.” (Robert Suesakul, an Army veteran from Iowa, told the Post that on his fourth visit to Chuck Grassley’s office, his aide “Was like ‘Hey, what [else] is going on?’ We didn’t even talk about the bill.”)

In fact, some people—not us, of course, but some—might conclude that the actual purpose of these trips was to spend money at the president’s hotel. After two initial trips before the inauguration, in which veterans were put up at the Westin in Crystal City, Virginia, Michael Gibson, the political operative who helped organize the jaunts, says he “just out of the blue decided, ‘Why not call the Trump hotel?’” (Gibson told the Post that his decision to patronize the president’s business had “nothing to do with” currying Trump’s favor, and the lobbying group said it picked Trump hotel for its discounted rates.) Intriguingly, at Chez Donald, the groups grew to roughly 50 vets, while the visits were extended from two days to three. Also: