Ivanka Trump has confirmed that she’s been disposed in a lawsuit filed by District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine that alleges the Trump International Hotel and the president’s inaugural committee coordinated together to abuse over $1 million by over-charging for event space. In a nutshell, it’s illegal to misuse inaugural funds for personal gain, and the Trump Hotel seems to have done just that during the 2017 event, according to the lawsuit. As a top executive for the family company, Ivanka has been roped into testifying in a deposition, and she is not happy about it. The president’s daughter fired off a tweet accusing the lawsuit of being “vindicative” while offering “proof” that the inaugural committee wasn’t overcharged.
“This week I spent 5+ hours in a deposition with the Democrat D.C. AG’s office where they questioned the rates charged by the Trump Hotel at the inauguration,” Ivanka wrote. “I shared with them an email from 4 years ago where I sent instructions to the hotel to charge ‘a fair market rate’ which the hotel then did. This ‘inquiry’ is another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness & waste of taxpayer dollars.”
In the screencapped email, it shows a response from Ivanka that simply reads, “Just seeing this. why don’t you call and negotiate. It should be a fair market rate.”
You can see Ivanka’s full tweet below:
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) December 3, 2020
As CNN notes, emails cited in the lawsuit show that there were concerns from the inaugural committee deputy chairman Rick Gates about the optics of the Trump Hotel charging $175,000 per day, which was at least “twice the market rate” if not more. However, the committee ultimately accepted the contract, resulting in the current litigation.
(Via Ivanka Trump on Twitter)