Lawmakers demand details of a Mar-a-Lago dinner where Trump promised to ease regulations on the oil industry while asking executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign.

House Democrats are launching an investigation into Donald Trump’s meeting with oil executives last month at his Mar-a-Lago Club, where the former president asked the executives to steer $1 billion to his 2024 campaign and promised to reverse dozens of President Biden’s environmental policies.

The probe comes after The Washington Post on Thursday first reported the fundraising dinner, where Trump said that giving $1 billion would be a “deal” because of the taxation and regulation the oil companies would avoid thanks to him, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

In letters sent Monday evening, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee asked nine oil executives to provide detailed information on their companies’ participation in the meeting. The Democrats voiced concern that Trump’s request at the dinner may have been a quid pro quo and may have violated campaign finance laws, although experts say his conduct probably did not cross the threshold of being illegal.

Lawmakers sent the letters to the CEOs of Cheniere Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, Continental Resources, EQT Corporation, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum and Venture Global. They also fired off a missive to the head of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s top lobbying arm in Washington.

Non-paywall link

  • @ShittyBeatlesFCPres
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    237 months ago

    I’d be curious to know what is a quid pro quo if not this.

    • @njm1314
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      167 months ago

      According to John Roberts they have to hand you a bag that has a giant dollar sign on it while you literally do the thing they tell you to do.

      • @whygohomie
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        7 months ago

        …and you just do that thing during stampede of wild elephants in Porky Pig’s Russian estate between 3:55 and 4:00 pm on the Fourth of July during a hailstorm. Oh, and there needs to also be one baby zebra bringing up the rear.

      • @Viking_Hippie
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        47 months ago

        I wouldn’t call two years “real quick” tbh…

    • @SkybreakerEngineer
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      87 months ago

      Only if the money goes to you personally. Free yachts or campaign donations legally don’t count as bribes