Congress should delve into Trump’s latest partnership with Saudis: columnist
News broke on Monday that special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the Trump Organization for financial information concerning deals it made with seven foreign countries as part of the investigation into classified documents found in the former president's Mar-a-Lago home.
As the report landed and sparked speculation that he might even be suspected of trying to make money from the documents, the man himself was bragging about his new Saudi-connected golf tournament.
"There is going to be great energy at the LIV Golf Tournament at @TrumpWashingtonDC this weekend," he said on Truth Social. The golf course is actually in Virginia. "Join me in watching incredible players including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cam Smith, Sergio Garcia, and so many more."
"The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has spent most of the past five months hard at work trying to link 'the Biden family' (read: relatives of President Biden but not Biden himself) to millions of dollars proffered by foreign business interests before Biden became president," wrote Philip Bump of the Washington Post.
"With the 2024 presidential campaign already at the top of the political conversation, the idea that some revelation might prove to be politically damaging to the incumbent is obviously a central motivation."
He noted that one would think the committee would be interested if a Democratic front-runner was raking in dough from a foreign business linked to a foreign leader. It might be especially concerning if the foreign leader had also been "implicated by U.S. intelligence in the murder of a journalist."
But when it comes to Donald Trump, the House Oversight Committee couldn't possibly care less, Bump said. "But all of that is true of Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, so no hearings should be expected."
The LIV Golf empire is a group of tournaments with "a well-paid coterie of golfers" that is paid by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is run by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. It's the same man who also reportedly gave Trump's son-in-law $2 billion.
"Mohammed, you will recall, was identified by U.S. intelligence officials as having approved the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi," wrote Bump.
He cited a federal judge who presided over a lawsuit filed by LIV against the Professional Golfers' Association.
“It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV,” U.S. District Judge Susan van Keulen wrote. “it is the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight, and operation of LIV.”
The New York Times also reported that LIV isn’t likely to be a good financial investment for the PIF. But it's making Donald Trump a lot of money. The implication is that the former president is cashing in on what he did for the Saudis while in the White House. Now that the DOJ is investigating the foreign Trump businesses surrounding the documents scandal, a former DOJ official questioned whether the Saudis also scored some government intelligence out of the deal too.
The first LIV tournament was at Trump's New Jersey golf course, where families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks demanded the event be scrapped. Many of the hijackers were tied back to Saudi Arabia, according to the 9/11 Commission report. When asked about the protests, Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “I don’t know much about the 9/11 families."
But LIV is the only option that Trump has because the PGA reportedly didn't want to be linked to the man being investigated for his alleged role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
"If only there were an institution within the federal government interested in publicly policing sketchy relationships between presidential candidates and foreign entities! Alas, there doesn’t appear to be," Bump complained, implying that the Justice Department isn't interested