Trump records show detail of payments to porn star, Playboy model

The Trump campaign’s most detailed disclosure of payments yet shows that President Donald Trump spent $35,000 to reimburse personal attorney Michael Cohen in 2017 — the year he repaid a porn star who allegedly had an affair with Trump and a Playboy model who claimed she was impregnated by him. In addition to the $35,000 he paid Cohen, Trump’s disclosure shows he spent another $250,000 on campaign expenses in 2017, with more than half going to his company, Trump Tower Commercial, LLC. The campaign paid $125,319 in rent in 2017 to Trump Tower Commercial, LLC, bringing the total paid to that company since Trump launched his campaign in 2015 to more than $1.8 million. Trump also spent $50,000 on legal expenses with the Jones Day law firm in 2017, a year in which his campaign battled multiple investigations into Russian meddling in the U.S. election and the president’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. The Jones Day expenses are on top of payments to other law firms and attorneys, including John Dowd, who represents Trump in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. In all, Trump paid $1.1 million to attorneys in 2017. Another $41,058 went to Carolina Herrera Boutique, a midtown Manhattan department store owned by Spanish-American designer Carolina Herrera. In addition to the disclosure filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Trump also filed a personal financial disclosure with the Office of Government Ethics. That annual report is more detailed about Trump’s finances than the average FEC filing. The disclosure shows Trump’s hotels, resorts and other companies took in at least $450 million in 2017. The annual report showed the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida had $25 million in business, a 10 percent increase from a year ago. The president’s 2017 income included $30 million from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. Both figures were up from 2016, when Trump reported $15 million in income from Mar-a-Lago and $20 million from Bedminster. The president also reported income from his other hotels around the world, including more than $25 million from his Trump National Doral in Miami. That’s almost a 20 percent increase from 2016. Trump also earned $3.9 million from the Trump International Hotel in Washington last year, which is down from the $40 million he reported in 2016. Trump reported that he made between $110,000 and $1.1 million from licensing deals in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and U.S. territories Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The report listed between $85,000 and $165,000 in income from hotels in Panama and Canada. The president also earned between $230,000 and $1.1 million from the Trump Corporation, which include investments in India. Trump has come under fire for not fully divesting from his businesses after he took office. Instead, he transferred company leadership to his children, but only donated profits from foreign visitors at his hotels and similar businesses last year. The latest disclosure report shows the president’s company spent $200,000 in rent in Trump Tower in the first five months of the year, in addition to the $125,000 it paid in the second half of the year. The company also paid $100,000 in rent to the U.S. General Services Administration, which oversees the lease for the Trump International Hotel in Washington. Trump also earned income from some of his other companies, including between $100,000 and $1 million from the Trump Park West in Chicago, between $100,000 and $1 million from the Trump Park Avenue in New York City, between $50,000 and $100,000 from the Trump SoHo in Manhattan, and between $15,000 and $50,000 from the Trump Plaza Tower in Jersey City, New Jersey. The disclosure also lists Trump as the owner of a franchise for the S Carolina Scorpions in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The team was previously known as the Greenville Road Warriors. Trump made between $15,000 and $50,000 in dividends from the franchise, according to the report. Trump also listed between $100,000 and $1 million in income from the holding company he used to purchase the Miss Universe Organization. Trump sold the company in 2015 after NBC decided not to air the beauty pageant because of comments he made about immigrants. The report shows Trump’s largest debt, of at least $130 million, is owed to Deutsche Bank. Trump also owes between $55 million and $110 million to Ladder Capital Corp, a commercial real estate lender. He also holds smaller debts with several banks, including at least $5.6 million with Bank of America and at least $1.5 million with the bank UBS. Trump’s disclosure also shows he made between $110,000 and $1.1 million off of the sale of his home in Bedford, New York. The home, located north of New York City, was bought for $787,500 in 2005. Trump’s office said he paid capital gains tax of 24 percent on the profit. He also earned income from a golf tournament he co-hosted at his Bedminster resort. The tournament paid Trump between $50,000 and $100,000 in royalties. The disclosure also shows Trump’s wife Melania made between $15,000 and $50,000 from Getty Images, which sells photos of the president and first lady. Trump earned between $50,000 and $100,000 in book royalties last year, the report said. The disclosure also lists Trump’s children as having earned income from their companies, including between $100,000 and $1 million for Ivanka Trump’s brand, between $50,000 and $100,000 for Donald Trump Jr.’s company, and between $15,000 and $50,000 for Eric Trump’s company. The president earlier this year began paying his adult children a salary for their work on his campaign. Trump’s campaign paid the president’s company $110,000 in reimbursements for various campaign expenses in 2017. Trump spent $75,000 on digital advertising with Facebook and $47,710 with Google in 2017. Trump also paid $85,000 to Former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s Green Monster Consulting, which was paid $540,000 by the campaign in the 2016 election cycle. The disclosure also shows Trump spent $11,250 on “makeup" from the MAC Cosmetics company, owned by the Estee Lauder Companies Inc., in 2017. Trump paid $16,168 to the U.S. Treasury Department, which was likely a reimbursement of Secret Service expenses. Trump also paid $2,000 to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Cleveland, which was the site of the 2016 Republican National Convention. The campaign also reimbursed Trump $58,685 for various expenses, including $33,829 in travel expenses. Trump’s campaign paid $3,000 to the mother-in-law of White House communications director Hope Hicks. The campaign paid Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss $3,000 in “strategy consulting” fees. Gruss is married to Joshua Gruss, who owns several high-end art galleries, including the Gruss & Co. gallery in Manhattan. Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss is a former fashion designer and editor with the fashion magazine Vogue. Trump’s campaign also paid $7,000 to former Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway’s polling firm, the Polling Company/Woman Trends, in 2017. Trump also paid $5,711 to the New York City-based consulting firm Bradley Tusk, which was paid $425,000 by the campaign in the 2016 election cycle. Trump’s campaign paid Tusk $4,289 for “strategy consulting” and $1,422 for “travel.”

Trump records show detail of payments to porn star, Playboy model

Comments (0) 4 👁️