Donald Trump has blasted Hillary Clinton for accepting money from Saudi Arabia through her foundation, but a Daily News investigation reveals he has padded his bank account with cash from the same country.
Trump sold the 45th floor of Trump World Tower to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for $4.5 million in June 2001, according to a city Finance Department spokeswoman. In 2008, the apartments became part of the Saudi Mission to the United Nations, records show.
The five apartments included 10 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms at the time of the sale, and had yearly common charges of $85,585 for building amenities, documents obtained by The News show. If those common charges remain the same, Trump was paid at least $5.7 million by the Saudi government since 2001.
Meanwhile, blowhard Trump and his cronies have hammered Clinton on the campaign trail, saying she should return money Saudi Arabia gave to the Clinton Foundation because the Arab state has a poor human rights record.
“Crooked Hillary says we must call on Saudi Arabia and other countries to stop funding hate,” Trump posted to Facebook in June. “I am calling on her to immediately return the $25 million plus she got from them for the Clinton Foundation!”
Rebecca Ocampo, who alleged in court papers she helped broker the deal between Trump and the Saudis, said the apartments were about more than money — they were also about “access” to a new, potentially lucrative market in the Middle East.
Ocampo, 67, and her company, Housing International, which specialized in housing for diplomats, sued Trump in 2001, seeking a broker’s fee for the deal. She said she abandoned the suit without it being resolved.
Records obtained by The News indicate Trump’s connection to influential Saudis predate the Trump World Tower deal.
In 1985, Osama Bin Laden’s half-brother Shafiq Bin Laden paid an $8,500 security deposit for an apartment in Trump Tower. Records indicate Shafiq — often described as the Westernized, polar opposite of Osama Bin Laden — lived there for four months in 1986.
A Trump spokeswoman declined to comment to The News. A Clinton spokesman also declined to comment.
Trump, for his part, has sent mixed signals regarding his dealings with the Saudis.
“Would you take money from the Saudis?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked recently.
“No,” Trump replied.
He told a different story last year.
“Saudi Arabia — and I get along great with all of them. They buy apartments from me,” Trump said in Mobile, Ala.
“They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
The Saudi Mission did not respond to requests for comment.
“This underscores the need for him to release more financial information,” said Chris Talbot, a Democratic consultant not working with the Clinton campaign. “We just don’t know very much about his dealings, and that’s concerning from a voter’s perspective.”
Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s main surrogates, has gone so far as to call on Clinton to publicly apologize for accepting Saudi cash for the foundation’s charitable work in economic development, health and other arenas.
“I’d like to see her apologize for all the money that the Clinton Foundation has been taking, let’s say from Saudi Arabia, where women are not allowed to drive. You tell me she’s a feminist and she takes money from a country where women are not allowed to drive?” Giuliani said last month on Fox News Sunday.
With Adam Edelman, Barbara Ross
