WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, raised concerns about Chairman Cummings’s recent attacks on Vice President Pence’s travel accommodations. Ranking Member Jordan sent letters to Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, U.S. Secret Service Director James Murray, Office of the Vice President Chief of Staff Marc Short, and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg providing supplemental information about Vice President Pence’s travel arrangements and accommodations in Ireland omitted by Chairman Cummings in his initial correspondence. The letter draws on findings from the Department of State’s Inspector General provided to the Committee in July of this year.
Excerpt from the letters:
“Chairman Cummings did not consult with Republican Committee Members prior to sending his letter. As such, and because the Chairman has a pattern of using the Committee to attack the Trump Administration for partisan gain, we write to supplement the Chairman’s letter with relevant information."
“Chairman Cummings’s letter to you omits relevant information about the Chairman’s previous oversight of President Trump’s foreign travel, which revealed that accommodations at a Trump Organization property in Europe saved taxpayer money. Specifically, following the President’s stay at Trump Turnberry in Scotland in July 2018, then-Ranking Member Cummings asked the independent State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) to examine any possible financial impropriety related to the travel. In July 2019, the OIG reported back to Chairman Cummings that the State Department saved taxpayer money by staying at the Trump Turnberry property, explaining that the ‘rate offered by the Trump Turnberry [was] the lowest of all the hotels being utilized for this VIP visit.’ Chairman Cummings has not publicly acknowledged the OIG’s findings."
“Chairman Cummings expanded his investigation of the Trump Turnberry property this year, demanding detailed information and documents from the Defense Department about military expenditures at the nearby Prestwick Airport. Here, too, the Chairman’s letters omitted key information: according to public reports, U.S. Air Force aircrafts landed at Prestwick Airport during the Obama Administration and executed a contract to refuel at Prestwick Airport in 2016, before President Trump entered office. We are not certain why Chairman Cummings ignored this information in his letters."
Full text of the letters can be found here.
