Jeff Danziger’s award-winning drawings, syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group, are published by more than 600 newspapers and websites. He has been a cartoonist for the Rutland Herald, the New York Daily News and the Christian Science Monitor; his work has appeared in newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to Le Monde and Izvestia. Danziger has published ten books of cartoons and a novel about the Vietnam War. He served in Vietnam as a linguist and intelligence officer, earning a Bronze Star and the Air Medal. Born in New York City, he now lives in Manhattan and Vermont. A video of the artist at work can be viewed here.
Know First.
The stories you want. The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning.
Ivanka Whines About Inaugural Committee Probe — And Prosecutor Rebuts Her
December 04 | 2020
Ivanka Trump
Photo by World Bank Photo Collection/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Reprinted with permission from Alternet
Ivanka Trump, along with the Trump Organization, has been under investigation for years for suspicions around the conduct of the president's 2017 inaugural committee and its funding. This week, she found herself being deposed for reportedly more than five hours by the D.C. attorney general as the investigation continues, leading her to lash out and accuse the investigators of being politically motivated.
But Karl Racine, the attorney general in question, hit back, saying it is clear the Trump family and the inaugural committee broke the law.
<p>At the heart of the investigation is the question of whether the Trump family use inaugural funds for extensive self-dealing. Because the committee, which raised an unprecedented amount of funds, spent much of its money on Trump properties, it could have been illegally funneling money to the family by charging egregiously high amounts for Trump Organization services.</p><script id="3d14008d7e044c36b256c61ff82728bb">
if(cnxFlag){
cnxFlag=false;
cnx.cmd.push(function() {
cnx({
playerId: '5573e7ba-804a-4971-a00f-3e2eeec6c0a9'
}).render('3d14008d7e044c36b256c61ff82728bb');
});
}
</script><p>"This week I spent 5+ hours in a deposition with the Democrat D.C. AG's office where they questioned the rates charged by the Trump Hotel at the inauguration," Ivanka said in a post on Twitter on Thursday. "I shared with them an email from 4 years ago where I sent instructions to the hotel to charge 'a fair market rate' (see below) which the hotel then did. This 'inquiry' is another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness & waste of taxpayer dollars."</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_2" data-aaad="true"></div>
<div class="video-container" id="videoCont" style="display: none;"></div>
<div id="vid"></div><p>In the email she shared, she said: "Just seeing this. why don't you call and negotiate. It should be a fair market rate."</p><p>However, despite her suggestion that this is some kind of vindication, it's hardly proof of her innocence. She may have put this down in writing to cover up the fact that she was actually not seeking a fair market rate. The suggestion that negotiations occur over the phone could even indicate that she wanted more substantive discussions about the funds to happen without a paper trail.</p><p>Racine disputed the idea that his investigation was a "waste."</p><p>"We filed suit after gathering evidence that the Presidential Inaugural Committee knowingly entered into a grossly overpriced contract with the Trump Hotel," he said in reply to Ivanka Trump's claims. "Any claim to the contrary is incorrect."</p><p>He added: "DC law requires nonprofits to use funds for stated public purposes, and to avoid unreasonable, wasteful expenses. Our investigation revealed the Committee willfully used nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family. It's very simple: They broke the law. That's why we sued."</p><p>He also shared an email from Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former aide to Melania Trump who has since turned on the family and written a tell-all book. In the email, she expressed concern about some of the conduct surrounding inauguration spending.</p><p>"I wanted to follow up on our conversation and express my concern," she said in the email. "These are events in PE's honor at his hotel and one of them is with and for family and close friends. Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge that locations were also gifted and costs underwritten to lower rental fees. I understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context. In my opinion the max rental fee should be $85,000 per day."</p><div class="inarticle_ad_placeholder" data-aa-adunit="/5931858/NatMemo_RM/NatMemo_Middle_Desktop_3" data-aaad="true"></div><p>And as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/22/politics/dc-attorney-general-sues-presidential-inaugural-committee/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported:</p><blockquote>In December 2016 [Rick] Gates wrote to Ivanka Trump, the President's daughter, that he was "a bit 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," according to the lawsuit.</blockquote><p>Reports also indicate federal prosecutors have also scrutinized the inauguration's finances, but no federal charges have been brought in the case.</p>
From Your Site Articles
- New Evidence Of Possible Tax Violations By Trump Inaugural ... ›
- Tax Revelations Renew Scrutiny Of Ivanka's Shady Business Deals ... ›
- Ivanka Oversaw Inauguration Payments To Trump Organization ... ›
- Emails Show Ivanka Helped Her Family Profit From Trump's ... ›
- New Lawsuit Says Trumps Oversaw Inaugural Overbilling - National ... ›
Related Articles Around the Web
- Ivanka Trump questioned over inauguration funds 'misuse' - BBC ... ›
- Ivanka Trump deposed Tuesday as part of inauguration fund lawsuit ›
- Ivanka Trump deposed by DC attorney general in inauguration ... ›
- Ivanka Trump questioned under oath in lawsuit over use of ... ›
- Suit claiming inaugural committee overpaid a Trump hotel moves ... ›
Keep reading...
Show less
