According to a report by Democratic lawmakers, former US President Donald Trump did not properly declare gifts from abroad worth more than a quarter of a million US dollars to him and his family during his term of office. This is the conclusion reached by the Democratic members of the House committee responsible for overseeing the government in a preliminary report published on Friday. The gifts from countries such as China or Saudi Arabia have a total value of 291,000 US dollars (just under 275,000 euros).
According to the law, the president must officially declare gifts to him and his family that are worth more than $415, the report said. Such gifts are the property of the U.S. government. In the case of more valuable personal gifts, however, the recipient has the option of buying them from the government and keeping them. However, the incumbent must declare them publicly in any case. However, this did not happen in Trump's case with a view to the gifts in question, it was said. The Republican was US President from 2017 to 2021.
Among the undisclosed gifts, for example, is a Saudi dagger worth $24,000. According to the report, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who led several delegations to the Middle East under Trump as an employee in the White House, bought the dagger. On the other hand, the competent authority had no information about the whereabouts of other gifts, it said. This includes a larger-than-life portrait of Trump that the then president received as a gift from his counterpart from El Salvador. There is also no trace of golf clubs worth several thousand dollars, which Trump received as a gift from the then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The committee wanted to find out whether and what impact the undeclared gifts could have had on US foreign policy, the report said.
On Friday, a federal judge also ruled that the investigating prosecutors in the case of the secret documents found with Trump should break the attorney-client privilege. This could mean that one of Trump's lawyers would have to testify before a grand jury on the subject. The former president is accused of storing secret government documents in private rooms even after his term in office.
So far, there has been no reaction to the two events. After more than two years of exile, however, the former US president has returned to the online platforms Facebook and Youtube. "I'm back!" wrote the Republican on Friday on his accounts in the two networks. He released a twelve-second video clip from the evening of his election victory in November 2016, in which he said: "I'm sorry I kept you waiting. Complicated matter."
Only on Friday, YouTube had lifted the block of Trump's user account imposed after the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Google subsidiary said it carefully weighed the "risk of violence" and the ability for voters to "hear equally from all major national candidates before an election."