At least two expensive foreign gifts, including a whiskey bottle worth over $5,000, are missing from the Trump Administration's gift records.
The Order of Abdulaziz al-Saud medal was received by Donald Trump.
The National Records and Archives Administration was asked to hand over any communications from the last year of Donald Trump's presidency.
According to the New York Times, the State Department never got a list of the gifts received by the White House in 2020, even though India and Switzerland appeared to give presents to Trump that year.
An unnamed State Department employee told the Oversight Committee last month that the federal government's vault for gifts was in "complete disarray" by the time Trump left office.
The probe may point to violations of the emoluments clause, a section of the Constitution that bars presidents from accepting foreign gifts, if it finds incomplete and missing records on the plush gifts.
It is possible that stronger laws on recordkeeping are needed.
Forbes contacted Trump and the National Archives.
Gifts that cost more than $415 are usually considered to be the property of the U.S. government, not the people who received them. The State Department must publish an annual list of foreign gifts, but after Trump left office, there were large gaps. The Saudi government gave dozens of opulent gifts to the Trump administration during a state visit to Riyadh, but several of the swords, daggers and furs presented to Trump officials didn't make it onto the State Department's log. A lawyer for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Forbes last year that his client doesn't remember receiving the whiskey bottle, which was given to him by the Government of Japan. In a November report, the State Department's Office of Inspector General said it couldn't find the whiskey bottle or gold coin because of shoddy recordkeeping and poor security in the gift vault.
The emoluments clause, a previously obscure corner of constitutional law, became a topic of discussion for much of Trump's presidency. At least three lawsuits were filed against Trump for allegedly profiting off foreign officials who visited his hotel in D.C. The Supreme Court tossed out two of the emoluments lawsuits after Trump left office, and a third suit from congressional Democrats was dismissed by an appeals court.
In the past, Trump has been criticized for his handling of government property. The National Archives said it received 15 boxes of Trump-era federal records that should have been sent to the government but were instead held at the former president's Mar-a-Lago club.
A bottle of Japanese Whiskey has gone missing. On the Rocks is a magazine.
The State Dept. is part of the Department of State. There is a report on missing gifts.
Trump officials failed to provide accounting of foreign gifts.
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