President-elect Donald Trump and his daughter Ivanka were warned in 2016 that the family business was overcharging the nonprofit presidential inaugural committee — and let it happen anyway, according to a suit filed Wednesday by the Washington, D.C., attorney general.
In the civil complaint, Attorney General Karl Racine charged the Trump inaugural committee and the Trump Organization with using around $1 million of charitable funds to improperly enrich the Trump family.
The civil complaint, filed on behalf of the District of Columbia by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, details the objections of staffers to exorbitant pricing for the use of Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom space—specifically event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s concerns, which were allegedly brought directly to then President-elect Trump and his daughter. According to the document, Donald Trump said Ivanka would handle everything and make it right.
Wolkoff’s concerns and warning via email to the Trumps—“These events are in [the president-elect’s] honor at his hotel and one of them is for family and close friends. Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge”—were not heeded.
On Jan. 10, 2017, Trump’s inaugural committee agreed to a contract that would enrich the Trumps at a rate of $175,000 per day—
more than twice the amount per day that Wolkoff told Ivanka and Rick Gates, the deputy to the inaugural chairman, should be paid—for the use of their own space.
According to the lawsuit, the charges included rental fees for days when the Trumps weren’t throwing any events.
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