This week, Ivanka Trump was deposed as part of an ongoing investigation led by the Attorney General for Washington, DC. The basic gist is that city money, federal money and GOP donor money was misspent during the 2017 Trump inauguration, because the Trumps were price-gouging people to rent space at the Trump-owned property in DC. Ivanka was part of the whole process, on both sides, and there’s a paper trail and everything. So it was particularly funny to see Ivanka get on her high horse and try to baby-whisper her way out of it. (BUT HER EMAILS!!!)
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 3, 2020
Imagine spending four years grifting American taxpayers out of millions of dollars to have Secret Service protection on your ski vacations and then complaining about the “vindictiveness” and “waste of taxpayer dollars” when there’s merely an investigation into how your family fleeced taxpayers. Even CNBC called her out:
President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump on Thursday blasted the Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office for deposing her in a lawsuit related to 2017 inauguration spending. But in doing so she conspicuously omitted the $3.6 million question posed by a Republican felon that underscored fears the Trump family was profiting from a nonprofit set up to celebrate the White House victory.
Ivanka Trump’s tweet condemning the suit as “politically motivated” included an email that indicates she told managers of her father’s hotel in Washington to charge “fair market rate” for its services during the inauguration after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. But what the senior White House advisor did not mention is that she only said that after being warned by a top inaugural committee official of the “quite high” minimum rate of $3.6 million for food and beverage and use of the banquet halls during inauguration week that the committee was being quoted by the Trump International Hotel.
Nor did Ivanka Trump mention that the mere fact of having an incoming president having his inaugural committee buy goods and services from a hotel he owned was unprecedented in U.S. history, much less when that hotel wanted to charge that committee, a nonprofit entity funded by private donors, millions of dollars for those services.
Again, remember all of the coverage of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania Trump’s former friend and advisor – Wolkoff was fired because of all of the shenanigans around the inauguration. Wolkoff later said that it felt like they were trying to pin all of this on her. Wolkoff realized that early on, so that’s why she kept all of the receipts and why she started recording conversations with Melania. Wolkoff was also deposed by the DC Attorney General, and I assume that Wolkoff has turned over all of the evidence she gathered. This isn’t really a big “Ivanka is going down” story, but it will definitely get interesting. And it’s just further evidence that all of the Trumps are going to be up to their eyeballs in civil lawsuits and criminal investigations. LOCK HER UP!
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
And this is civil so no pardon.
Funny thing about her email “receipt” it actually proved what the DC AG was trying establish. That she was in charge of setting the fees by which the Trump organization bilked tax payers. Nigini not so smart, it seems. Also, just for fun, Fair market value isn’t a negotiable item. I glad that this crime family has been shown for what it is. A wish them a lifetime of horrors
I hope the NY AG brings them all down. Burn this fascist lot with fire: drain the swamp.
The email says to “call and negotiate” because “it should be fair market rate”
But a) fair market rate isn’t a negotiation
And b) we don’t know what was said during that call or what other emails/calls Ivanka may have sent/made.
In addition, this deposition was apparently 5 hours, so what else did they talk about? What other materials were presented?
I’ll leave this here… tells us Vanky’s mindset to be a “force for good, and wanting to make a positive impact” …yeah…POSITIVE IMPACT ON *HER* BOTTOM LINE!
(via the indomitable Sarah Cooper!): https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1334682365260599296?s=20
Thanks for that link! Sarah Cooper is on fire!
She is a treasure 😊.
Nicolle Wallace (MSNBC and a big Sarah Cooper and Leslie Jones fan) also posted it, and under the vid, an ER nurse wrote that after her shift she sits in her car and watches the vids she posts, and it gives her the lift/laugh she needs to get through. It made me smile, and yet almost made me cry at the same time.
And if you advise your staff to try and get a “fair market rate”, but what they bring back is a rate that is 3600% higher than the fair market rate and that is what you end up charging…your efforts didn’t mean anything. Who cares what she encouraged if the final deal was a drastic over-payment.
Really did not understand this story because I did not follow it at the time.
Could a fellow CBer post a “Cliff’s Notes” version of what happened?
BayTampaBay- TL;DR version: The Trump’s held inauguration events at Trump properties and are being sued for price gouging taxpayers/donors by charging far more than the going rate (fair market value).
And the fact that a Trump property was used at all is another ethical problem
Thanks!
The fact that a Trump property was used is an ethical problem. Exactly!
The IRS says: “A 501(c)(3) organization is prohibited from allowing its income or assets to benefit insiders (people with a personal or private interest in the activities of the organization).”
No part of an organization’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of an individual who, because of the person’s relationship to the organization, has an opportunity to control or influence its activities. Fair market pricing allows for profit- so in a situation like this the hotel would need to recover only it’s actual costs. Fair market doesn’t meet the expectation of protecting the non-profit organization’s best interests.
Sometimes IRS tax code is a good thing.
Vanky was TOLD that the amount was well MORE THAN DOUBLE the going rate for the day; she was told to bring it down, or find another place. She ignore it/them.
Also, it is being investigated because over $10 MILLION seems to have *vanished* off the books, no doubt skimmed by the Grifters.
Oh and Vankie Baby blacked out her email address in the pic. Was she using a private server?
They did throughout this treasonous administration.
Yes. And Congress has subpoenaed her emails twice and she has refused to comply
Throw her a** in jail until she complies.
Somebody’s feeling fragile…
Clearly. She has lashed out twice this week. Used “vindictive” both times. Pretty much admitting there’s reason people would want revenge against her.
She’s got her dad’s projectivitis.
Can we get the email evidence from her personal emails from the personal server.? She and hubby were using multiple servers and email accounts, in addition to official gov email account and Trump organization email. This evidence is selective.
Congress has subpoenaed that twice and she ignored it. Let’s see if the AG has better luck
And let’s not forget Dead-Eyed Boy’s use of What’sApp to communicate with MBS re: Khashoggi and other pay for play business, again NOT a “secure” site at all.
It’s been noticed she is using her father’s tactics of attacking when under scrutiny.
She’s just like him
You would think she would see that the masses – 81 million – would e enough of a flag for her – but I guess of there is no dollar sign in front of numbers, then numbers are useless and meaningless.
There Was another massive lawsuit filed in NY yesterday. When Trump and family changed billing companies after the dad died to reduce their 55 million dollar tax liabilities, it automatically raised the rent on renters on rent control apartments and most were negatively affected. It’s a class action suit.
Poor poppet don’t do the crimping of you can’t handle the depositions. This is just the beginning hon
Why is the body of the email in a different font to the header? Looks faked to me.
But that would be no surprise.
Lots of people pointed that out on Twitter yesterday. There’s a whole process involved with e-discovery involving chain of command. I doubt the lawyers will accept her copy of an email as she presents it.
Chain of Command or Chain of Custody?
Custody! Sorry.
No doubt it was doctored.
Ha, I loved the DC AGs clapback about how it was illegal, so they sued. Nice try though Ivanka.
Wasting tax payer dollars she says? Hahahahhahaha, that’s all her family does. Fool, I hope her life is miserable soon.
Ivanka is permanently banned from serving on the board of any nonprofit organization in the state of New York due to the fraud that was going on at the Trump Foundation.
She was great as the face of canned beans, however.
Curious, has she ever served on any nonprofit board aside from the supposed nonprofit run by her family?
Actually, she wasn’t. That’s not to say she isn’t crooked as hell!!
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/12/social-posts-distort-facts-on-trump-charities/
Thank you for my first laugh of the day!
How do these people accuse everyone of the very things they’re guilty of? How do they do that with a straight face???
I have a sibling who does that. They just buckle down and get more defensive if you dare call them out on it.
My dad is like this. It’s gotten to the point where whenever he starts bitching or complaining about something someone did, I automatically assume he’s guilty of it. Since he’s been caught having multiple affairs, whenever he starts going off about ‘immorality’ I know to start looking for another girlfriend.
That’s the first thing malignant narcissists do – it’s a diversionary tactic in order to deflect blame onto everyone around them and portray themselves as the “poor victim”. In my family, my mother, uncle and sister suffered from Borderline/Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Growing up was like picking my way through a field of landmines so I’m well versed in their tactics.
It drives me crazy. On occasion, my husband and the boys have been guilty, but damn. I pounce lol. Normally, I quickly ask them to hang on, run to my purse and grab a mirror to slap on their faces. Men. Sometimes a visual is more effective.
They (Trumps) are all psychopaths.
A 5 hour deposition is a waste of tax dollars, but her grifter family ripping off everyone for YEARS isn’t a problem.
I hope she gets used to being deposed, I think it’s going to happen a lot after Jan. 20.
I feel like her chin implant is trying to escape her face. That profile is getting more Trumpian by the day!
Guaranteeing $3.6 million! That is outrageous. I have never seen a hotel rental contract set up like that. Absolute grift.
‘Im not the one wasting tax payer dollars, you are!’
Such projection.
Reminds me of:
‘Im not a puppet, youre the puppet!’
Great comeback don.
Mary todd lincoln used to charge dinner guests at the white house saying it was the standard when they were guests you dont pay and it turns out she was pocketing the money herself.
The fair market rate BS reminds me of a roommate i had who tried to charge me to use the garage included in our lease. I let her know it wasnt her garage to charge rent for me to use and her response was, this is the standard rate foe this size garage to rent. Uh, not the point honey.
The fact that it was held at a Trump property at all is a major violation of ethics. The market rate was a secondary concern. This fish can squirm on her hook all she wants, but all she’s revealing is what we suspected all along about how much they were grifting from the American people. Her real problem is that this time it isn’t a business court that can be tied up in counter lawsuits. This is the federal government with power and force behind it.
Queenie doesn’t think she owes anyone an explanation for her illegal behavior…….
Notice none of the mango family went after Stephanie Wolkoff on Twitter or the press? Is it because she’s holding all the receipts?
They better get Ivanka for the fact she’s using her personal email. DT went after Hilary with a vengeance for doing the exact thing as his wife, OOPS, I meant daughter.
That’s pure BS if they don’t nail Ivanka on that alone. Then they should get on her for all her other illegal activities.
@Charlie IRS tax codes are a good thing. But after having worked in nonprofit and finance world for many years, more oversight and laws are still needed. There are way too many loop holes and grey areas, and straight up corruption at many, many nonprofits. The rich and corrupt often use nonprofits for money laundering and for their own gain – what oversight there is is too little.