- Saturday, May 27, 2023
Jamie Raskin, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, stated that the Committee Democrats are committed to finding the missing high-value gifts
By: Kimberly Rodrigues
According to a report by a partisan Democratic Congressional committee, Donald Trump did not disclose foreign leaders’ gifts worth $250,000 to the First Family, including $47,000 worth of gifts from Indian leaders such as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, then-President of India Ram Nath Kovind, and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The preliminary findings from the ongoing investigation by Committee Democrats into former President Trump’s violation of the Foreign Gifts and Decorations Act have been presented in a report titled “Saudi Swords, Indian Jewelry, and a Larger-than-Life Salvadoran Portrait of Donald Trump: The Trump Administration’s Failure to Disclose Major Foreign Gifts.”
Trump, a Republican, held the office of the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Congressman Jamie Raskin, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, stated that the Committee Democrats are committed to finding the missing high-value gifts, including golf clubs, the custom portrait of Donald Trump from El Salvador, and other unreported items.
They want to determine their final whereabouts and whether they were utilised to influence the former President’s decisions regarding US foreign policy.
The report asserts that former President Trump, who is 76 years old, along with the First Family, neglected to disclose over 100 foreign gifts that add up to a value of more than $250,000.
In November 2021, the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department released a report highlighting serious issues at the Office of the Chief of Protocol during the Trump administration. The report disclosed “missing items of a significant value.”
The report concluded that inadequate record-keeping and insufficient physical security measures were responsible for the loss of the gifts. As per the report, the Trump family was presented with 17 unreported gifts from India, valued at over $47,000. Notably, these gifts included an $8,500 vase from Yogi Adityanath, a $4,600 model of the Taj Mahal, a $6,600 Indian rug from former President Kovind, and $1,900 cufflinks from Prime Minister Modi.
(With inputs from PTI)
