Public Paid $77,000 For Junior To Kill Endangered Sheep

From the government watchdog group CREW:

Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial trophy hunting trip to Mongolia cost taxpayers nearly $60,000 more than the government previously disclosed, according to documents obtained by CREW after suing over a Freedom of Information Act request. CREW originally received Secret Service documents in March that showed that Secret Service protection for the trip cost at least $17,000, a fraction of the more than $75,000 it actually cost taxpayers.

Because the original figure appeared to be an undercount and did not include any mention of Don Jr.’s stop in Ulaanbaatar, where he met privately with the Mongolian president, or flight costs, CREW appealed the request. The new records show that the full cost of the trip was actually $76,859.36, including the first and second round of receipts provided to CREW.

The eight day trip was already controversial for many reasons: Don Jr. was retroactively awarded a permit to hunt an endangered argali sheep after he already killed it, he had a private meeting with Mongolia’s president that we still don’t know much about, and hunted alongside a major Republican donor, as originally reported in ProPublica.