Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser to Melania Trump, told ABC News she is working with multiple prosecutors on investigations into potential financial crimes committed in connection with President Trump’s inauguration.
Said Wolkoff: “I’m working with three different prosecutors, and it’s taken over my life.”
Wolkoff is the author of Melania and Me, a tell-all book about her relationship with the First Lady.
According to Melania and Me, which I just received in the mail, Donald Trump wanted his inauguration to look like a North Korean military parade.
Said Trump: ‘I want tanks and choppers. Make it look like North Korea.”
Politico has eight other “juicy details” from the book.
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Politico: “The briefing was intended to hammer home a new, terrifying reality facing the Trump administration, and the incoming president’s responsibility to protect Americans amid a crisis. But unlike the coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging the globe, this 2017 crisis didn’t really happen — it was among a handful of scenarios presented to Trump’s top aides as part of a legally required transition exercise with members of the outgoing administration of Barack Obama.”
“And in the words of several attendees, the atmosphere was ‘weird’ at best, chilly at worst.”
“Washington D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sued President Trump’s inaugural committee and business, alleging that the committee violated its nonprofit status by spending more than $1 million to book a ballroom at Trump’s D.C. hotel that its staff knew was overpriced and that it barely used,” the Washington Post reports.
“During the lead-up to Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, the committee booked the hotel ballroom for $175,000 a day plus more than $300,000 in food and beverage costs, over the objections of its own event planner.”
“A fundraiser and donor to President Trump was charged by federal prosecutors in New York with obstructing an investigation into his activities, including back-dating a check to a fellow donor and deleting emails,” Bloomberg reports.
“The former adviser to first lady Melania Trump, who has come under fire for the cost of President Trump’s inauguration, was among the event planners who raised concerns about excessive spending in the weeks before the events,” according to documents obtained by CNN.
“Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend of Melania Trump, has emerged as a witness for investigators and received a subpoena last month by Washington DC’s attorney general.”
According to the new book American Carnage, President Trump told Paul Manafort why he would never pick then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as his attorney general, the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “Because that guy would prosecute my own kids and not think twice about it.”
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who is now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, was vetted by the Trump transition team for an unspecified administration role, Axios reports.
Nearly 100 internal Trump transition vetting documents leaked to Axios identify a host of “red flags” about officials who went on to get some of the most powerful jobs in the U.S. government.
A sampling:
“A Ukrainian-Russian developer who wanted access to President Trump’s inauguration filed a lawsuit on Tuesday saying he was bilked out of the $200,000 he paid for what he thought would be V.I.P. tickets to the event,” the New York Times reports.
“The lawsuit sheds new light on efforts to accommodate foreign politicians and business executives who sought to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration to press their agendas, curry favor or make influential connections with the incoming administration.”
“Federal prosecutors in New York are scrutinizing tens of thousands of documents relating to Donald Trump’s inauguration in a sign that the investigation into the committee’s finances is advancing,” CNN reports.
“The end of the document production indicates the investigation is moving into the next stage. Authorities are investigating whether any of the record $107 million in donations for the inaugural was misspent, used to improperly benefit certain individuals, or came from foreign donors in violation of campaign finance laws that prohibit foreign money in US elections.”
“The House Intelligence Committee has asked one of the top contractors to President Trump’s inaugural to provide it with documents about the event, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday, opening up a new line of inquiry into the planning and financing of the ceremonies,” the New York Times reports.
“The committee asked for documents from and an interview with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who had been a close friend of the first lady, Melania Trump, and who had helped plan the celebrations and parties around the inaugural.”
Washington Post: “The gathering, which cost the inaugural committee roughly $8,000 a person, was the brainchild of billionaire Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Trump’s close friend and his inaugural committee chairman, and gave foreign guests an unparalleled chance to mingle with the incoming vice president, other members of the new administration and lawmakers.”
“The dinner was an extravagant symbol of Trump’s inaugural festivities, which involved record fundraising, lavish spending and a large concentration of foreign guests. Now, state, federal and congressional investigators are scrutinizing those issues as part of five inquiries of activities related to the inaugural committee.”
“Donald Trump’s inauguration received tens of thousands of dollars from shell companies that masked the involvement of a foreign contributor or others with foreign ties,” The Guardian reports.
“The Guardian has identified the creators of three obscure firms that contributed money to Trump’s inaugural committee, which collected a record $107m as he entered the White House in 2017.”
Bloomberg Businessweek: “Trump registered his opinion on inaugural plans big and small, from allocation of broadcasting rights to procurement of tablecloths, according to three people familiar with the planning and the transition effort who requested anonymity to describe the decision-making process… Barrack told staff that Trump wanted to know everything about the inauguration’s finances, an admonition to keep budgets in check… Trump’s interest in keeping tabs on spending was familiar to anyone who’d worked on the campaign.”
“Trump’s involvement in inaugural planning started early. He wanted to give exclusive broadcasting rights to Fox News, with on-air talent that was broadly supportive of his candidacy. But in a late November phone call with Trump, Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, argued it would be a mistake to broadcast only to his most loyal supporters.”
The White House has repeatedly denied that Trump had any role in planning it.
“The attorney general for the District of Columbia has subpoenaed documents from President Trump’s inaugural committee, the third governmental body to delve into how the fund raised $107 million and spent it to celebrate Mr. Trump’s swearing in,” the New York Times reports.
“The latest subpoena follows similar demands for documents by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and by New Jersey’s attorney general. The attorney general in Washington is a local official who enforces statutes governing the operation of nonprofit organizations like the inaugural committee.”
“New Jersey’s attorney general has stepped into the investigation of President Trump’s $107 million presidential inaugural fund, issuing an administrative subpoena for the fund’s financial records, including any that document fund-raising in the state,” the New York Times reports.
“The New Jersey subpoena also demands records of any contributions made on behalf of foreigners, who are barred from contributing to inaugural funds, campaigns or political action committees in the United States.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
She did not respond to a request for comment.