Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stay at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC during his visit to meet US president Donald Trump has raised eyebrows.

The White House, however, said it had no part in booking Najib's accommodation.

"We certainly don't book their hotel accommodation. 

“I couldn't speak to the personal decision they (Najib) made on where to stay here in (Washington) DC," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press conference following the Najib-Trump meeting yesterday.

Sanders was responding to a question on whether Najib's decision to stay at the Trump International Hotel was an attempt to “curry favour” with the US president.

The White House press secretary said she was unaware if Najib’s hotel stay was discussed at the meeting.

“I’m not sure about if that came up. I’m not aware that that was ever discussed.”

The Washington Post reported that hotel staffers and Malaysian officials declined to confirm Najib and members of the Malaysian delegation’s stay at the Trump Hotel, or if they did stay there, for how long.

However, the US daily pointed out that at lunchtime on Monday, more than a dozen members of Najib’s entourage were seen at the hotel, in a lounge area reserved for hotel guests.

“That evening, they came and went from the hotel, sometimes returning to the valet stand with shopping bags,” it reported.

Najib himself returned to the hotel at about 10.30pm, it said.

Then, on Tuesday morning, dozens of delegation officials were seen convening in meeting rooms, with some attending a breakfast at the hotel’s Lincoln Library meeting room, Washington Post said.

Events like this, it said, could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for the Trump Organisation. The company declined to comment, it added.

“Ethics experts, citing the (US) Constitution’s emoluments clause, consider foreign government bookings at the hotel unacceptable.

“Though it has hosted hotel events for many foreign entities, as well as lobbying-group events and Republican fundraisers, the Trump Organisation says it does not seek foreign governments as clients, keeps a separate log of their payments and plans to donate profits it receives from them to the US treasury at the end of the year,” Washington Post reported.

Purely business

Sander is also unaware if the US Department of Justice (DOJ) probe which Najib is linked to was discussed at the meeting.

Najib is not directly named in the DOJ civil forfeiture suits on assets allegedly purchased using funds stolen from 1MDB.

The DOJ suits, however, claim that an unnamed Malaysian Official 1 (MO1) had received a sizable sum of the misappropriated 1MDB funds.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan last year confirmed that MO1 was Najib.

However, he stressed the fact Najib was not named in the DOJ filing showed that the prime minister was not a subject of investigation.

Najib's critics claim that the prime minister was seeking Trump's help to ease pressure from the DOJ suits, as well as criminal investigations by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The premier, however, said his meeting is purely about business, security and bilateral ties.

Najib has denied misappropriating public funds for personal gain, and attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali has cleared him of any wrongdoing related to 1MDB.

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