President-elect Donald Trump talks with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016. () (Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump pledged to drain the swamp when he took over the White House and vowed to end Washington’s addiction to corporate money and influence. During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016, Trump said he would not be “able to look the other way” when the nation’s political system “has sold out to some corporate lobbyist for cash.” But records obtained by the Center for Public Integrity show that a myriad of corporations and trade groups secretly “bankrolled a plush hideaway for lawmakers at the same Republican National Convention in Cleveland.” The “cloakroom” was a lavish, “exclusive office, lounge and gathering space for Republican lawmakers — including House Speaker Paul Ryan.” The “cloakroom” was built on the practice court inside Quicken Loans Arena, according to CPI. The corporations and lobbying giants that funded the cloakroom included Comcast, the Koch Companies, the National Retail Federation, Microsoft, Chevron, Health Care Service Corp., AT&T and the American Petroleum Institute, CPI noted. “The immediate effect is it looks like it hid certain donors to the convention,” Lawrence Noble, senior director and general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for campaign finance reform, told CPI. A limited liability company called “Friends of the House 2016 LLC” paid for the secret room which afforded its contributors with entry space. “As a sponsor of the hospitality venue, we were invited to use it, as well,” Jori Fine, a spokeswoman for Health Care Service Corp., told CPI.