After records revealed the donors behind President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom, former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer called the project “basically a money laundering operation.”
Oyer made the charge Thursday in a YouTube video reacting to a Washington Post investigation published that morning.
The Post obtained an internal spreadsheet showing $333 million in private donations for the ballroom and published the names of 57 donors who each committed $100,000 or more.
“He’s using it as a front to accept cash payments in exchange for political favors,” Oyer said.
Oyer was the Justice Department’s pardon attorney until March 2025. She has said she was fired after refusing to recommend restoring actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights, according to The Associated Press. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who fired her, has denied that account.
“The donor list was supposed to be a secret, probably because it makes it quite clear that the way you get a favor from Trump is by cutting a big check,” Oyer argued.
The Trust for the National Mall, the nonprofit that manages the donations, has an agreement with the government that requires it to keep donors anonymous unless White House staff approve in writing, the Post reported. Donors who asked not to be named contributed at least $77 million.
Oyer’s first example was Isabela Herrera, whose father, international banker Julio Herrera Velutini, was indicted on bribery charges in 2022, the Post reported. After Trump won the 2024 election, Isabela Herrera gave $3.5 million to the pro-Trump political action committee MAGA Inc.
Her father’s charges were reduced to a misdemeanor in August 2025 as part of a plea deal, according to the Post. The next month, Isabela Herrera committed $2.5 million to the ballroom, and Trump pardoned her father in January. Neither responded to the Post’s requests for comment.
“[I]n case you have any doubt that this was a bribe for her dad and not a legitimate donation by Herrera, here’s another fact. Her only prior political donation ever was $20 to Pete Buttigieg in 2020,” Oyer said.
Oyer described other donations in the report as “shady quid pro quos,” meaning money traded for official favors. The Post, however, wrote that its reporting “does not establish a connection between the donation commitments and favorable actions by the Trump administration.”
Oyer also pointed to Rocket, the company founded by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Daniel Gilbert. A Rocket subsidiary committed $10 million three weeks after a federal housing agency approved Rocket’s purchase of a rival, the Post reported.
Salesforce and its CEO, Marc Benioff, committed $3 million, according to the Post. Between two of those commitments, the Army awarded the company a contract worth up to $5.6 billion after receiving only one bid.
Another Oyer example, Dish Network co-founder Charles Ergen, committed $25 million months after regulators dropped an investigation of his company, while a sale still awaited federal approval, the Post reported. Joseph Popolo Jr. and his wife gave $1 million two months after he was confirmed as ambassador to the Netherlands, the records show.
The Post reported that the Trust channels the money into a White House account that Trump directly controls.
“The same critics who are alleging fake conflicts of interests, would also complain if American taxpayers were footing the bill for these long-overdue renovations,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Post.
“We need leaders who are going to investigate, prosecute, and end this corruption,” Oyer said.