Former Melania aide claims Trump shut down government to distract from separate scandal

Former Melania Trump aide Stephanie Winston Wolkoff is alleging that Donald Trump's 2018 government shutdown was a ploy to hide a separate scandal from the American public.

In a recent post on Twitter, Wolkoff claimed that "the Trump White House coordinated their nefarious activities using government resources and shutdowns to the detriment of the American people. Distract! Gaslight! WH CFO told me a little secret. They were shutting down the gov’t so it coincides with the release of [Presidential Inauguration Committee] $107M."

Wolkoff elaborated on this in a followup post where she claimed that "when I worked for Melania Trump, the Trump WH shut down the government to distract from the REAL story which was an impending investigation into Trump’s $107 million dollar inauguration."

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She then added that the investigation into the inaugural committee "was swept under the rug by Bill Barr who closed down the SDNY investigation!"

To back up this claim, Wolkoff posted a Jan. 31, 2018 email online in which Heather Martin, director of budget and treasury for the Presidential Inaugural Committee, says that they are "not going to file until next Thursday or Friday to coincide with the next round of the government shut down possibility."

Wolkoff's claims have not been independently verified, however.