E-Paper
Ivanka Trump questioned in suit over inaugural hotel cost
The deposition of the president’s daughter, a top White House aide, was taken Tuesday and is one of many key interviews taken in recent months, according to a court filing, which also disclosed that First Lady Melania Trump has been subpoenaed for documents.
Ivanka Trump was interviewed by District of Columbia lawyers in a lawsuit where President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee is accused of illegally overpaying for events at a hotel owned by his family business.The deposition of the president’s daughter, a top White House aide, was taken Tuesday and is one of many key interviews taken in recent months, according to a court filing, which also disclosed that First Lady Melania Trump has been subpoenaed for documents.
Lawyers for District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine also have deposed Mickael Damelincourt, the managing director of the Trump hotel in downtown Washington and Eric Danziger, who runs Trump’s hotel business, as well as Thomas Barrack Jr., a longtime friend of the president’s and chairman of the inauguration committee, according to the filing. The content of the depositions wasn’t disclosed or described.
The White House declined to comment.
Filed in January in District of Columbia Superior Court, the case is one of numerous and varied legal actions Trump, his family and associates face as the president reenters private life next month.Racine, a Democrat, argues that Trump’s inaugural committee made an unjustified payment of more than $1 million to the Trump hotel for events from Jan. 17 to Jan. 20, 2017, after failing to consider less expensive alternatives.
The depositions were reported earlier by CNN.The case is District of Columbia v. 58th Presidential Inaugural Committee, 2020 CA 000488 B, Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
