Garcia believed the trips were organized by other veterans, but that puzzled him, because money was being spent more freely than in any other veterans group he had ever worked with — private hotel rooms, open bars, free dinners. Garcia said one of the organizers who had been drinking minibar champagne mentioned a Saudi prince.

“I said, ‘Oh, we were just used to give Trump money,’” Garcia told The Washington Post.

Johns said Thursday he wasn’t involved in booking the Trump property, and he didn’t buy the implication that it was wrong.

“The undertone here is that Qorvis purchased all of the hotel rooms at the Trump Hotel in order to curry ‘favor’ and/or ‘influence’ with President Trump as he was coming in to office,” Johns said. “I could understand all of this if after our fly-ins and staying at (the) Trump Hotel that all of a sudden he was out publicly calling for repeal of JASTA, but he didn’t.”

JASTA, or Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, was backed by the families of Sept. 11 victims. It opened the door to litigation alleging that the Saudi government was partially responsible for the attacks. Congress passed the law and in September 2016 overrode President Barack Obama’s veto. The lobbying effort hasn’t led to the law being repealed.