Maine paid for 40 rooms at Trump hotel for LePage, staff
Source: Portland Press Herald
AUGUSTA Former Gov. Paul LePage and his staff members paid for more than 40 rooms at Washington, D.C.s Trump International Hotel during a two-year period, spending at least $22,000 in Maine taxpayer money at a business owned by the presidents family.
Documents recently obtained by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram show that the LePage administration paid anywhere from $362 to more than $1,100 a night for rooms at the luxury hotel during trips to meet with President Trump or his inner circle, attend White House events or talk to members of Congress. Receipts from those dozen trips also show the Republican governor or his administration spending hundreds of dollars on filet mignon or other expensive menu items at the restaurant in the Trump hotel. Those expenditures are likely to draw additional scrutiny from attorneys who have cited LePages previously disclosed stays at the D.C. hotel in a federal lawsuit alleging the president is improperly profiting from the business.
The spending levels at the Trump hotel were so high that they were flagged by a worker in the state controllers office, who sought guidance on state regulations for reimbursing such expenditures.
The reason I am asking is because the Governor and some of his staff are staying in Washington, D.C. pretty frequently at the Trump International Hotel and the room cost is WAY more than the allowed amount, the worker wrote to Deputy Controller Shirley Browne in June 2017, following a particularly costly month. He is not attending a conference of any type but is meeting with the President, testifying, meeting with lawmakers and others, etc. so the normal exemptions (to state spending limits) do not apply.
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Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/17/maine-paid-for-40-rooms-at-trump-hotel-for-lepage-staff/
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)riversedge
(70,218 posts)occurrence
Adds up over time.
Blues Heron
(5,932 posts)brazen and shameless.
rockfordfile
(8,704 posts)Lepage is just another right-wing crook.
Soxfan58
(3,479 posts)Lepage has been sucking up for a cabinet appointment since trump started running. Now we find he used state funds to do it.
magicarpet
(14,150 posts)Open the money spigot full blast if it is going into their wallets or the coin purse of a chummy chummy Fascist friend.
This is why Congress was given oversight of the Executive Branch - to investigate such matters of self enrichment.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,446 posts)Great work by the @PressHerald! Former Maine Gov. LePage spent up to $1,100 per NIGHT in state money on stays at @realdonaldtrumps hotel.
Link to tweet
.@PressHerald, am I remembering right that LePage got elected on the premise that state govt was spending too much?
Link to tweet
JudyM
(29,248 posts)llmart
(15,539 posts)until I hear from Susan Collins to see if she is "highly concerned" about this.
Firestorm49
(4,035 posts)Firestorm49
(4,035 posts)Yeehah
(4,587 posts)Lots of people in this country vote for whomever Fox "News" tells them to.
Vinca
(50,271 posts)They're lucky LePage finally slithered away to another state with lower taxes.