Saudi-funded lobbyists reportedly spent $270,000 at Trump International Hotel after 2016 election

In the three months following the 2016 presidential election, lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved several blocks of rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., paying for an estimated 500 nights, The Washington Post reports.

The Washington firm Qorvis/MSLGroup, which has long worked for the Saudi government, paid to host six groups of U.S. military veterans at the Trump International, spending more than $270,000, the Post reports. Once in D.C., the veterans were pushed to lobby against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which lets the families of Sept. 11 victims file suit against the Saudi government.

Before Trump's election, veterans stayed in Northern Virginia, and the switch to Trump International took place in December 2016, the Post reports. At that time, the average nightly rate at the Trump hotel was $768; organizers told the Post they received a discount, all other hotel rooms in the area were full, and they were not trying to appeal to Trump. One veteran from Texas, Henry Garcia, told the Post he was never told Saudi Arabia was behind his trip until partway through, and he was surprised by the amount of wining and dining that occurred. "It made all the sense in the world when we found out that the Saudis had paid for it," he said.

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Two federal lawsuits have been filed claiming Trump violated the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause by taking improper payments from foreign governments, and on Tuesday, the attorneys general in D.C. and Maryland subpoenaed 13 Trump businesses, looking for records showing foreign spending, the Post reports. Read more about the lobbying efforts and what the veterans say they were told to say about JASTA at The Washington Post.