Ivanka Trump involved court case investigation 2017 inauguration committee

Ivanka Trump made her political debut after her father President Donald Trump took office in 2016 and according to a new lawsuit abused donor funds by 2017 for the inauguration committee. A new court filing reveals that the president’s oldest daughter promoted to senior White House adviser Ivanka was deposed by attorneys alleging Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee wasted non-profit funds for the 2017 inauguration.

Ivanka Trump, Pres. Trump's eldest daughter and White House senior adviser, sat for a deposition with the Washington, D.C., Attorney General's Office on Tuesday as part of ongoing investigation into Trump 2017 Inaugural Committee, @ABC News has confirmed. https://t.co/9nx8R1Lc5J

— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2020

The court filing alleges wasting non-profit funds with the inauguration committee approving more than $1 million in improper payments to Trump’s hotel in Washington D.C. for the week of the 2017 inauguration. The lawsuit subpoenaed records from Ivanka Trump among others involved in the inauguration committee including First Lady Melania Trump as well as a close friend of the president who chaired the inaugural committee, Thomas Barrack Jr.

Financial records indicate that the inauguration committee “grossly overpay” for the inauguration venues spending over $1 million for the ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. and enriched the Trump family in the process. The District of Columbia’s attorney general Karl Racine accuses the inaugural committee of coordinating with hotel management and members of the Trump family to plan the event while misusing nonprofit funds.

Racine explains, “District law requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not to benefit private individuals or companies. In this case, we are seeking to recover the nonprofit funds that were improperly funneled directly to the Trump family business.”

The inauguration committed raised $107 million allocated for hosting Trump’s inauguration and the spending has only continued to draw scrutiny. Shortly after the news broke of the new case, Ivanka Trump disclosed some evidence from the case in an attempt to defend herself.

pic.twitter.com/DERU9YJLcL

— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 3, 2020

Ivanka posted a screenshot of an e-mail that she claims she sent while planning the inauguration saying “Just seeing this. why don’t you call and negotiate. It should be a fair market rate.” Though the details of the e-mails are very limited, she claims that she sent this e-mail to the hotel instructing them to charge “a fair market rate.”

Ivanka concluded her statement, “This ‘inquiry’ is another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness & waste of taxpayer dollars.”