San Francisco ethics official sues Secret Service over Trump Jr. trip to India

The San Francisco ethics commissioner on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service for its refusal to release details on how much security for Donald Trump Jr.’s trip to India cost. 

Quentin Kopp filed the suit over the Secret Service’s failure to answer a documents request he filed earlier in the year concerning how much taxpayer money was spent to protect Trump Jr. during the trip.

{mosads}The commissioner claims that taxpayers should not foot a bill for a trip in which the president’s children profit from their work in the Trump Organization. 

“It’s private business at the expense of taxpayers,” Kopp said to reporters outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Examiner. “I’m a taxpayer. I resent it.”

In February, Trump Jr. traveled to India to promote family projects for the Trump Organization. He was also expected to give a foreign policy speech about Indo-Pacific relations, but the event was canceled. 

Kopp filed a public records request under the Freedom of Information Act in February in an effort to see how many Secret Service agents went on the trip. In addition, he was seeking information related to lodging and transportation expenses. 

But the Secret Service said the request was too broad months later. Kopp replied with more specific details, but after not hearing back, filed a lawsuit this week.

“There’s been a wholesale use of taxpayer assets by the Trump family led by the President of the United States,” Kopp said, according to the Examiner. “It’s almost as if he’s acting in the true form of a crook to take taxpayer money and to use it for private business.”

Kopp’s lawsuit against the Secret Service comes as many question the conflicts of interest inside the Trump administration. It was reported in July that Trump’s two eldest sons racked up nearly $250,000 in Secret Service costs during two trips abroad in 2017 tied to the family’s real estate development business