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2 firms paid $50 million by Trump inaugural committee

ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Donald Trump spoke in the Diplomatic Room at the White House, today, in Washington, about the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Trump’s inauguration committee paid two private companies more than $50 million for event planning while donating $5 million to charitable causes after the January 2017 event in Washington, according to new federal tax documents filed by the nonprofit committee.

WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee paid two private companies more than $50 million for event planning while donating $5 million to charitable causes after the January 2017 event in Washington, according to new federal tax documents filed by the nonprofit committee.

The filings for the Presidential Inaugural Committee show that the organization paid nearly $26 million to an obscure event planning firm based in Southern California. The company, WIS Media Partners, is described in the tax filings as an “event production” firm, but California state incorporation records do not list the firm’s owner.

But The New York Times reported today that the firm was started by Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff, a New York event planner who has been an adviser to first lady Melania Trump. Winston-Wolkoff, who is a longtime friend of the first lady’s, was known to be involved in the inauguration’s planning, but the tax filings do not provide any explanation for her $26 million compensation or a breakdown of her work.

Winston-Wolkoff did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment left with a family member. WIS Media Partners’ California registrar, Los Angeles lawyer Richard Garzilli, also did not immediately respond to a phone message.

The committee had raised nearly $107 million for the lavish event, an unprecedented inaugural price tag nearly twice that of President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. But some of those involved in or aware of the committee’s work told the AP last September that the orchestration of the event was marred by last-minute decisions, staffing turnover and little financial oversight.

Tom Barrack, the committee’s chairman and a New York private equity investor who is a close friend of the president, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A second event planning firm, Hargrove Inc., based in Lanham, Md., was paid $25 million for its work producing the event. The same firm had been paid about $5 million for its work in 2009 for Obama’s inaugural committee. The firm’s CEO, Tim McGill, was not immediately available for comment.

Two other New York-based event planners, David Monn and Production Resource Group Group Inc., received $3.7 million and $2.7 million for their work.

Brendan Fischer, an official with the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington group that focuses on election law and government ethics, questioned the Trump committee’s expenses and said inaugural committees face little oversight or requirements to justify their expenses.

“There is a real risk of corruption and self-dealing when corporations, government contractors and other special interests can write massive checks that the inaugural committee can spend with minimal oversight or transparency,” Fischer said.

The tax filings show that $3 million was donated to charitable organizations that aided victims of last year’s hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida. Other donations went to Washington historical causes.

The inauguration committee reported a profit of $2.7 million after the charitable donations. Despite earlier statements that that profit would go to charity, there was no indication in the tax documents that it had yet been donated.

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