E-Mails Show Ivanka Trump May Not Have Testified Accurately In Inaugural Probe

Documents reveal that Ivanka Trump may not have testified truthfully last December when asked whether or not she was involved in planning the 2017 inauguration.

Last year, Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington D.C., began a probe into how former President Donald Trump‘s inauguration committee used charitable funds. Racine has alleged that those funds were used to enrich the Trump family. In a court deposition on December 1, 2020, Ivanka was asked precisely if she was involved “in the process of planning the inauguration.” To that, she responded that she did not have any involvement. Only if her opinion were solicited, she said, would she offer feedback.

But newly released e-mail chains show that Ivanka was directly involved in the planning process, including playing a role in putting together menus for various events.

Ivanka was the executive at the Trump Organization before transitioning into an adviser role in the White House. Her alleged involvement has become an issue in the investigation. Racine claimed that the inaugural committee, which is a non-profit corporation, worked with the Trump family to overpay for event space in the Trump International Hotel.

Emails like those Ivanka exchanged with Rick Gates, the then deputy chairman of the presidential Inauguration Committee, and those with lead producer Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, provide more evidence that Ivanka and Jared signed off on “high-level” plans.

Those events included inviting families from all 50 states to attend official functions and to provide them with various accommodations, like airfare and hair and makeup.

However, in late December, Matthew Hiltzik, a public relations consultant, told her that because the “narrative surrounding inauguration is going awry,” Ivanka should put Winston Wolkoff front and center in the inauguration planning. He wanted Ivanka to distance herself from the bad press.

In her own deposition for the same lawsuit, Winston Wolkoff, who is also the author of the book Melania and Me, said that Ivanka’s involvement in the inauguration planning did seem “out of the ordinary.”

Donald Trump Jr. was also deposed in the case in February.