The District of Columbia Attorney General’s office plans on questioning a number people close to Donald Trump Jr. as part of its investigation into potential illegal activity undertaken by Donald Trump Sr.’s 2017 inauguration committee, the Daily Beast reports.
Allen Weisselberg, the CFO of the Trump Organization, was also integrally involved in the inauguration celebration, which raised the most money for any inaugural in history but was mocked for its sparsity of big talent celebrities with any name recognition. The inaugural parade featured high school bands and a convoy of tractors. The night’s entertainment “starred” piano performers popular on YouTube, one-hit wonder Lee Greenwood, and Toby Keith.
Investigators are also interested in questioning Gentry Beach, a Texas financier who served on the inauguration committee and was a college friend of Don Jr.; and Kara Hanley, a Trump Organization executive assistant who reportedly worked for Don Jr. and who made arrangement for the inauguration.
“The world’s about to learn how Trump’s inner circle—with Trump’s full knowledge—took advantage of the presidential inauguration,” said Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a one-time friend of Melania Trump who helped put together inaugural events and is now a lead witness for the government in this case. “Everything they did was all about self-dealing. They had a nonprofit pay them for their own hotel at an inflated cost,” she told The Daily Beast.
An inauguration committee is supposed to be a non-profit operation; after the inauguration, any unspent money is traditionally given to charities. However, the way the Trump inaugural is under question because they paid above-market rates at Trump properties for reception space and hotels rooms. Plus, the organizers were paid exorbitant salaries for what is generally regarded as a bust of an inaugural.