Ivanka Trump, sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, according to a court filing.
The D.C. A.G office sued the Trump Organization and Presidential inaugural committee in January alleging they abused more than $1 million raised by the nonprofit by “grossly overpaying” for use of event space at the Trump hotel in Washington for the 2017 inauguration, according to CNN
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In addition to Ivanka, Tom Barrack, the chairman of the inaugural committee was also deposed. The committee’s event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, will be deposed.
The AG’s office also subpoenaed documents from Barrack, Ivanka Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and Rick Gates, the former inaugural committee deputy chairman.
Gates, who at the time was in charge of securing event space at Trump’s hotel wrote to Ivanka in 2016 saying that he was “worried about the optics of PIC [Presidential Inaugural Committee] paying Trump Hotel a high fee and the media making a big story out of it.”
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According to the lawsuit, Gates agreed with the hotel’s managing director and Trump family members to pay $175,000 per day for the committee to reserve space for four days.
Wolkoff advised against the transaction because the charges were at least twice the market rate. The committee accepted the contract anyway.
