The Trump Organization and Donald Trump's inauguration committee agreed to a settlement to end a years-long investigation into misused donations, and the probe's key witness is furious about the resolution.
Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff, a former friend and staffer to Melania Trump, helped plan the inauguration but turned against the former president and his wife after they appeared to blame her for the mismanagement of funds donated to the event, and she spoke out against the $750,000 settlement reached with the District of Columbia to end the probe, reported The Daily Beast.
“I’m just so shattered -- It’s awful, it’s unjust, it’s absurd,” Winston-Wolkoff said. “I can’t believe this. They stole so much. The self-dealing, the perjury -- they all know about it.”
D.C. attorney general Karl Racine called the settlement a win for his office, but Winston-Wolkoff and corruption watchdogs lamented that the resolution was less than the $1 million in nonprofit funds that prosecutors accused the Trump family of misspending by booking events at vastly overprice rooms at Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.
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"[It's] the kind of thing that helps fuel this public perception that there are two systems of justice: one for the everyman and another for the rich and powerful," said Elizabeth Hempowicz, director of public policy at the Project on Government Oversight. “It's not about the money at the end of the day. What is a million dollars to the Trump family?”
However, another government watchdog said the settlement was actually sort of remarkable given the difficulties prosecutors face when going after the rich and powerful.
“Donald Trump and his associates have a strategy of aggressive litigation and particularly delay tactics," said Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "They will try to drag things out as long as possible. They will make it as difficult as possible. For the attorney general to get them to a place where they were willing to pay up is pretty remarkable."
“I wish it was more, and I wish it were all the money they got through self-dealing,” Bookbinder added. “It is frustrating that Donald Trump always seems to escape without admitting anything.”
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The settlement allows the Trump Organization to deny wrongdoing, and about $350,000 of the settlement was already paid by an insurance company -- much to the frustration of Winston-Wolkoff.
“He is above the law," she said. "There’s just no accountability whatsoever, for $750,000."