Any charges over the going rate could be violations of tax law.<\/b>
\nIvanka Trump reportedly oversaw negotiations for the price the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D. C., paid her father\u2019s inaugural committee for venue rentals, with the event planner raising concerns of overcharging.
A top planner with the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee emailed Ivanka Trump and other Trump Organization employees to \u201cexpress my concern\u201d about potential event-space overcharging by the hotel and what could occur \u201cwhen this is audited,\u201d ProPublica reported on Friday. Any charges over the going rate could be violations of tax law.
Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ivanka Trump\u2019s lawyer Abbe Lowell, downplayed Ivanka Trump\u2019s role in the matter.
\u201cWhen contacted by someone working on the inauguration, Ms. Trump passed the inquiry on to a hotel official and said only that any resulting discussions should be at a \u2018fair market rate,\u2019\u201d Mirijanian told ProPublica, without providing evidence of that rate. \u201cMs. Trump was not involved in any additional discussions.\u201d
Ivanka Trump was a Trump Organization executive vice president in December 2016, when the inaugural events were being planned, and reportedly was preparing to relocate from New York to Washington, D. C.
Emails obtained by ProPublica showed that Ivanka Trump was asked to address a dispute between her family\u2019s hotel and the event planners about overcharging concerns. The soon-to-be first daughter and senior White House adviser referred Rick Gates, who was deputy to the inaugural chairman, to hotel managing director Mickael Damelincourt.
The original price was unclear, but Damelincourt offered a new $175,000-per-day rate for the Presidential Ballroom and other meeting rooms, and $700,000 for four days.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, an inauguration lead organizer, emailed Ivanka Trump and Gates.
\u201cI wanted to follow up on our conversation and express my concern,\u201d Wolkoff wrote in December. \u201cThese events are in PE\u2019s [the president-elect\u2019s] honor at his hotel and one of them is for family and close friends. Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge.\u201d
Wolkoff wrote that the inaugural committee had been offered other event spaces free of charge, saying, \u201cI understand that compared to the original pricing this is great but we should look at the whole context.\u201d Wolkoff asked for a daily rate of $85,000.
A spokeswoman for the inaugural committee told ProPublica she was \u201cnot aware of any pending investigations and has not been contacted by any prosecutors,\u201d and that \u201cwe simply have no evidence the investigation exists.\u201d
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, dance at the Freedom Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D. C., on January 20,2017. Trump was reportedly involved in how much the Trump International Hotel charged the inaugural committee for venue space. Aaron P. Bernstein\/Getty Images
The Ivanka Trump findings are new, but the inaugural committee has been marred with controversy before. It raised a record $107 million but donated only $3 million to hurricane relief efforts, and $1.75 million to groups that maintain the White House and home of the vice president. But $51 million was divided roughly in half between two companies, including WIS Media Partners, a firm founded by Wolkoff, who is a longtime friend of first lady Melania Trump.<\/p>\n