Ivanka deposed in donor funds lawsuit
Ivanka Trump has been deposed by attorneys alleging that President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misused donor funds, a new court filing reveals.
The document, first reported by CNN yesterday, notes that Ivanka Trump, the President’s oldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, was interviewed on Wednesday by attorneys from the Washington DC attorney general’s office.
The office has filed a lawsuit alleging waste of the non-profit’s funds, accusing the committee of making more than US$1 million ($1.4 million) 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, first lady Melania Trump, Thomas Barrack Jr, a close friend of the President who chaired the inaugural committee, and others.
Barrack was also deposed last month.
Trump’s inaugural committee spent more than US$1 million 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, alleges the District of Columbia’s attorney-general, Karl Racine.
He has accused the committee of misusing non-profit funds and coordinating with the hotel’s management and members of the Trump family to arrange the events.
The committee raised an unprecedented US$107 million to host events celebrating Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, but its spending has drawn continued scrutiny.
Alan Garten with the Trump Organisation 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”.