President Donald Trump’s assertion that the Russia scandal is completely imagined gets more outlandish the longer one looks at how corrupt his team really is. In an unprecedented situation, the committee that handled his inauguration festivities is now facing a third subpoena from a third authority investigating their operations. The newest order to hand over documents is from D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, who seems to be looking into whether the committee engaged in “self-dealing,” The New York Times reports.
The Trump team has been found guilty of the practice before, which essentially constitutes using money meant for charitable or otherwise not private causes for the benefit of those involved in its collection and distribution. As Racine’s subpoena put it, his team is looking into whether funds “were wasted, mismanaged and/or improperly provided private benefit, causing the committee to exceed or abuse its authority or act contrary to its nonprofit purpose.”
To that end, they’re seeking documents covering issues like the committee’s payment of some $1.5 million to the president’s own family business for the usage of the Trump-branded D.C. hotel. D.C. investigators are also seeking information on what roles the president’s three most prominent adult children — Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric — played in the committee’s operations, and information about any and all payments to firms associated with members of the committee in any way.
Public concern has been raised about all of these points before. Behind the scenes as preparations for the inauguration continued, First Lady Melania Trump’s own friend Stephanie Wolkoff — who was paid lavishly for event planning work associated with the inauguration — raised concerns about the steep rate the Trump Organization was asking for usage of their facilities. She sounded an alarm in an email thread that Ivanka Trump herself was on, who helped connect then-deputy inaugural committee chair Rick Gates (who’s since pleaded guilty to unrelated federal crimes) and the Trump Organization.
The steep rates, however, went through. If there’s evidence that the cost was above that found across the market at the time, those involved could be guilty of the sort of fraud that Racine seems to be looking for.
Besides those points, there’s more troubling evidence against the committee, like the massive amount of cash that went out to eventual Trump 2020 campaign chairman Brad Parscale for digital operations associated with the events.
The committee handled more donations than any other modern presidential inaugural committee, doubling the previous record set at Barack Obama’s first swearing-in.
That’s where federal prosecutors in New York are looking, who were the first to subpoena the committee and are investigating whether foreign money illegally flowed into the committee’s coffers through “straw donors.”
New Jersey officials, meanwhile, “appear to be examining whether the committee obeyed civil statutes governing how nonprofit organizations raise funds, among other matters,” according to The Times.
The scrutiny on a presidential inaugural committee is unprecedented and represents one of the ways that long after Special Counsel for the Russia investigation Robert Mueller closes up shop, the Trump team could still be in legal trouble.
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