In April, a report emerged that Dondald Trump Jr. might have lied to prosecutors investigating the 2016 inauguration. Now, according to a new report, his sister Ivanka Trump may have also lied about her involvement in how campaign funds were spent.
The Trump Organization was sued by the D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine in January of 2020, as reported by Mother Jones. Racine also sued the Trump International Hotel and Trump's 2016 inaugural committee, claiming that all three groups funneled money from the inauguration budget into the first family's pockets.
It is believed that the Inaugural Committee used funds to do several things, including throwing a private party for the first family costing several hundred thousand dollars. The attorney general accused the family of grifting and has continued his attempts to regain the funds.
During a deposition in December of 2020, the former president's eldest daughter was asked by the D.C. attorney general's office if she was involved in the process of planning the inauguration. She responded under oath, "I really didn't have any involvement." She went on to claim that if she gave any ideas, they would have been given to "my father or to anyone who asked my perspective or opinion." But it did not go beyond that, she said.
However, according to documents obtained by Mother Jones, the former first daughter was intimately involved in decisions about numerous parts of the inauguration.
One email chain, which included Ivanka, shows she was directly involved in planning at least one proposed event for the inauguration, per the magazine's reporting. Ivanka was emailed the scheduled inaugural events by Rick Gates, the then deputy chairman of the Presidential Inauguration Committee, on Nov. 29, 2016.
He wrote to her that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a lead producer working with the PIC, "is going to call you to discuss some additional ideas she has about some other events that we would like to see if you would be willing to do based on our meetings."
To this, the former first daughter said, "Great. I am looping in my assistant Suzie who can coordinate a time for us to connect."
In the following days, Winston Wolkoff sent a long email to Ivanka and her husband thanking them for the meeting. She also attached a "high-level summary" of the Inauguration plans for her review.
In the email, she also wrote about how she and Ivanka had discussed numerous events and themes that would be held at the inauguration and asked her to confirm that she would host a "Women's Entrepreneurs Reception/Dinner" as part of the inauguration. She went on to ask who Ivanka would like to invite.
The communication continued back and forth between Ivanka and others as she helped coordinate things like bringing on talent for the Inauguration.
Mother Jones says these emails show a direct contradiction to what the former president's daughter testified in her deposition late last year — leading to the question of whether or not the family was misspending Inauguration day funds, and whether Ivanka played a role in that.