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Inaugural Committee Gave Over $25 Million to Melania's Friend
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/politics/trumps-inaugural-committee-paid-26-million-to-first-ladys-friend.html. . .
The nonprofit group that oversaw Mr. Trump’s inauguration and surrounding events in January 2017, the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, had been under pressure from liberal government watchdog groups to reveal how it spent the record $107 million it had raised largely from wealthy donors and corporations.
Its chairman, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, had pledged that the committee would be thrifty with its spending, and would donate leftover funds to charity. In a statement released by the committee, he praised it for carrying out the inauguration and more than 20 related events with “elegance and seamless excellence without incident or interruption, befitting the legacy and tradition that has preceded us.”
But the mandatory tax return it filed with the Internal Revenue Service revealed heavy spending on administrative and logistical expenses associated with planning and executing several days’ worth of events for donors and supporters around Mr. Trump’s inaugural ceremonies.
By contrast, the return showed that the group’s charitable donations included only a previously publicized $3 million for hurricane relief, as well as a total of $1.75 million to groups involved in decorating and maintaining the White House and the vice president’s residence, and $250,000 for the Smithsonian Institution.
The 116-page filing indicates that the majority of the funds — more than $57 million — went to four event-planning companies.
The company that received the biggest payment — $26 million — was WIS Media Partners of Marina del Rey, Calif. Records show that the firm was created in December 2016, about six weeks before the inauguration, and its founder, according to a person familiar with the firm, was Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a longtime friend of Mrs. Trump’s. Otherwise there is very little information available about the company.
The nonprofit group that oversaw Mr. Trump’s inauguration and surrounding events in January 2017, the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, had been under pressure from liberal government watchdog groups to reveal how it spent the record $107 million it had raised largely from wealthy donors and corporations.
Its chairman, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a longtime friend of Mr. Trump’s, had pledged that the committee would be thrifty with its spending, and would donate leftover funds to charity. In a statement released by the committee, he praised it for carrying out the inauguration and more than 20 related events with “elegance and seamless excellence without incident or interruption, befitting the legacy and tradition that has preceded us.”
But the mandatory tax return it filed with the Internal Revenue Service revealed heavy spending on administrative and logistical expenses associated with planning and executing several days’ worth of events for donors and supporters around Mr. Trump’s inaugural ceremonies.
By contrast, the return showed that the group’s charitable donations included only a previously publicized $3 million for hurricane relief, as well as a total of $1.75 million to groups involved in decorating and maintaining the White House and the vice president’s residence, and $250,000 for the Smithsonian Institution.
The 116-page filing indicates that the majority of the funds — more than $57 million — went to four event-planning companies.
The company that received the biggest payment — $26 million — was WIS Media Partners of Marina del Rey, Calif. Records show that the firm was created in December 2016, about six weeks before the inauguration, and its founder, according to a person familiar with the firm, was Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a longtime friend of Mrs. Trump’s. Otherwise there is very little information available about the company.
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Melania Trump cuts ties to friend/adviser whose firm got $26 million for Trump inauguration
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2018/02/27/melania-trump-cuts-ties-friend-adviser-whose-firm-got-26-m-trump-inauguration/376853002/
First lady Melania Trump's New York friend, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, has been cut loose from her team as an unpaid adviser after controversy arose over the $26 million her firm received from the presidential inaugural committee.
Mrs. Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed Tuesday to USA TODAY that the first lady's office has "severed the gratuitous services contract" (aka "contracted volunteer"
it had with Wolkoff, a New York-based event planner and longtime friend of FLOTUS.
Mrs. Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed Tuesday to USA TODAY that the first lady's office has "severed the gratuitous services contract" (aka "contracted volunteer"
it had with Wolkoff, a New York-based event planner and longtime friend of FLOTUS.https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2018/02/27/melania-trump-cuts-ties-friend-adviser-whose-firm-got-26-m-trump-inauguration/376853002/
As usual, Rachel was right on the money, literally.
