Ivanka Trump quizzed as part of inauguration fund
lawsuit
Outgoing US president’s daughter interviewed by
lawyers alleging 2017 inauguration committee misused donor funds
Associated
Press
Thu 3 Dec
2020 08.58 GMT
Ivanka
Trump was interviewed by attorneys alleging that Donald Trump’s 2017
inauguration committee misused donor funds, a new court filing reveals.
The
document, first reported by CNN on Wednesday, shows that Ivanka Trump, the
president’s oldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, was interviewed
on Tuesday by attorneys from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office.
The office
has filed a lawsuit alleging waste of the nonprofit’s funds, accusing the
committee of making more than $1m (£746,000) in improper payments to the
president’s Washington, DC, hotel during the week of the inauguration in 2017.
As part of
the suit, they have subpoenaed records from Ivanka Trump; the first lady, Melania
Trump; Thomas Barrack Jr, a close friend of the president who chaired the
inaugural committee, and others. Barrack was also interviewed last month.
Trump’s
inaugural committee spent more than $1m to book a ballroom at the Trump
International Hotel in the nation’s capital as part of a scheme to “grossly
overpay” for party space and enrich the president’s own family in the process,
the District of Columbia’s attorney general, Karl Racine, alleges.
He has
accused the committee of misusing nonprofit funds and coordinating with the
hotel’s management and members of the Trump family to arrange the events.
“District
law requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not
to benefit private individuals or companies,” Racine has said. “In this case,
we are seeking to recover the nonprofit funds that were improperly funnelled
directly to the Trump family business.”
The
committee raised an unprecedented $107m to host events celebrating Trump’s
inauguration in January 2017, but its spending has drawn continued scrutiny.
In a
statement, Alan Garten, from the Trump Organization, said that “Ms Trump’s only
involvement was connecting the parties and instructing the hotel to charge a
‘fair market rate,’ which the hotel did.”
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