Ivanka Trump Reportedly Involved in Negotiating Payments Between Trump Inaugural Committee and Trump Organization

Ivanka Trump was reportedly involved in helping to negotiate the price the Inaugural Committee paid Trump’s properties to use their venues and services.

And that could spell trouble if, in fact, the Inaugural Committee overpaid.

The report comes from ProPublica who noted that there were concerns the Trump Organization was overcharging for housing events honoring the Donald Trump and the over-payments may actually be a violation of the law.

ProPublica reports:

The inauguration paid the Trump Organization for rooms, meals and event space at the company’s Washington hotel, according to interviews as well as internal emails and receipts reviewed by WNYC and ProPublica.

During the planning, Ivanka Trump, the president-elect’s eldest daughter and a senior executive with the Trump Organization, was involved in negotiating the price the hotel charged the 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee for venue rentals.

Ms. Trump’s involvement was noteworthy because, according to ProPublica, one of the main Inaugural event planners expressed their concern to Ivanka in an email about the prices and even warned that it could lead to trouble when the books were audited.

Members of the Inaugural Committee were also uncomfortable with the price they were being asked to pay and counter-offered the going rate which was less than half of what the Trump Organization was asking for in payment for rentals for events honoring Trump himself.

Marcus Owens, the former head of the division of the Internal Revenue Service, said even doing business with Trump’s hotels raises serious ethical red flags.

“The fact that the Inaugural Committee did business with the Trump Organization raises huge ethical questions about the potential for undue enrichment,” he explained.

It is not entirely clear how much the Inaugural Committee ultimately paid, however, making it uncertain if the whole dealing passes from ethical grey area to violating a law.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ivanka Trump’s ethics lawyer, was also quick to distance Ms. Trump from the whole thing.

“When 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 ‘fair market rate.’ Ms. Trump was not involved in any additional discussions,” he claimed.

Yet, the report is not the first time the Inaugural Committee’s dealings been questioned. Earlier this week, the New York Times published a report on prosecutors looking into whether the inaugural committee received “illegally funneled donations.”

[image via Getty Images]

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