Bathroom break! Secret Service are seen making a quick trip to the restroom in the $144,000 studio apartment beside Ivanka and Jared's house - because the Trump couple banned them from their SEVEN toilets
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Secret Service agents were seen walking to a $3,000-per-month basement studio near their Washington, D.C. home on Thursday night, following reports the couple banned them from using their seven restrooms.
On Thursday night the secutiry team was seen by DailyMail.com walking down the road from the Trump-Kushner residence to the facility. Shortly after, they returned to their protectees' residence.
Starting in September 2017 through the present day, the United State Secret Service has spent more than $100,000 in taxpayer dollars on the rental property from a neighbor of the Kushner's in Washington's elite Kalorama neighborhood.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Secret Service detail were seen on Thursday night going down the road to use the restrooms at their rented facility
The men and women protecting the First Daughter and her family have since September 2017 been using the restroom in a studio apartment down the street
The White House say the Secret Service chose the arrangement: an official told The Washington Post that was not the case
The property the agency rented is down the street from where Jared and Ivanka rent their six bedroom and 6.5 bathroom home for $15,000 per month in the elite Kalorama neighborhood in Northwest Washington D.C.
Neighbors and law enforcement officials told The Washington Post that the Secret Service spent months searching for a reliable place to use the bathroom while agents were assigned to Kushner and Trump's detail.
Before deciding to rent out a nearby apartment, agents used a porta-potty and sometimes would visit the homes of neighbors, like former President Barack Obama, or the not-so-nearby residence of Vice President Mike Pence, to use the bathroom. They sometimes would use local businesses to relieve themselves, as well.
'It's the first time I ever heard of a Secret Service detail having to go to these extremes to find a bathroom,' one law enforcement official familiar with the situation said.
Secret Service are no strangers to Kalorama, a residential neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. Several have stood guard there as Cabinet secretaries and former presidents tend to take up residence in this area of the city.
The neighborhood also houses multiple embassies.
It is not unusual for there to be special arrangements to create distance between agents and those they guard. This instance, however, appears to be further complicated since the property doesn't have a separate area on the property – like garage, pool house or other outbuilding – that could be used as a break room or bathroom.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner wouldn't let Secret Service agents assigned to their detail use any of the seven bathrooms in their 5,000 square foot Washington, D.C. home
Instead, the United States Secret Service was forced to rent out a $3,000 per-month basement studio apartment from the couple's neighbor (pictured above) so agents could have a place to break and use the toilet
All Smiles: Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, leaves his home with a smile on his face Thursday, the day after the House voted to impeach Donald Trump for a second time
Ivanka Trump gives a thumbs up as she exists the West Wing of the White House on Thursday
The president's daughter and senior adviser is one of Trump's last remaining close confidants as administration officials continue to flee the White House following the storming of the Capitol last week, which Democrats blame on Trump for 'inciting an insurrection'
The owner of the property rented by Secret Service said she understood they needed a place to break, take showers and use the bathroom close by. Here a Secret Service agent is pictured in workout gear as he prepares to trail behind Trump and Kushner as they go for a run
Donald Trump's daughter and son-in-law – both senior advisers to the president – have 6.5 bathrooms in their six-bedroom 5,000-square-foot D.C. home.
Kushner and Trump moved into the home in 2017 and have been renting it since then for $15,000 per-month from Chilean billionaire Andrónico Luksic.
The couple lives there with their three children, Arabella, 9, Joseph, 7, and Theodore, 4.
White House Spokesperson Judd Deere said the couple did restrict agents from using their bathrooms, claiming the Secret Service decided not to allow the protective detail inside. A law enforcement official familiar with the situation pushed back against this account, insisting the family requested agents stay out of the house.
'When discussions regarding protecting their home were initially had in 2017, Ivanka and Jared made clear that their home would always be open to the incredible men and women on their detail,' Deere said.
'It was only after a decision by the [Secret Service] was made that their detail sought other accommodations,' he continued, adding that the 'Kushners have a tremendous amount of respect for the servicemen and women on their detail and for the United States Secret Service as a whole. Their home will always be open to them and they have immense gratitude for their service over the last four years.'
Kay Kendall, who lives in a different house in Kalorama but owns the property USSS are renting, said agents knocked on her door in September 2017 requesting to rent her for-lease basement unit.
'I think it was very clear that they just needed a place to take a shower, take a break, use the facilities, have lunch,' Kendall told the Post. 'I'm happy to be able to have helped them.'
The property owner is chairwoman of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and is married to Jack Davies, founder of AOL International.
Aside from the basement unit with rear access, the rest of the house is rented by former Connecticut Congressman Anthony 'Toby' Moffett Jr., who requested his rent be reduced if the Secret Service moved in downstairs.
The minimum for the 820-square-foot basement unit will expire on September 26, 2021 – and by then the federal agency will have paid $144,000 total for the space.
Ivanka takes children Arabella, 9, (right), Joseph, 7, (background) and Theodore, 4, (left) out for a scooter ride around Kalorama – the elite neighborhood used to seeing secret service as they guard Cabinet officials and former president's residences
'They sort of came in with the attitude, like, 'We are royalty,' Kushner and Trump's former across-the-street neighbor Dianne Bruce said of the couple.
'When they put the porta-potty right outside on the sidewalk we weren't allowed to walk on, that was when people in the neighborhood said, 'That's really not acceptable,' she said, but said when the temporary bathroom option was removed she felt bad for agents assigned to their detail.
It is not clear how long Trump and Kushner plan to stay in their D.C. residence past January 20 – when President Trump's term is officially over.
Reports last month reveal the couple purchased a $31.8 million lot on the elite and high-security Indian Creek Island, which is known as the 'Billionaire's Bunker', in Miami, Florida.
The 1.84-acre piece of land includes 200 feet of private waterfront and a 13-man police force specifically for the residence.
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