Those unfair claims made her into "the cover girl for the inauguration shenanigans," she wrote in her book. The money not spent - totaling about $3 million - was reportedly donated to charity.Īs Winston Wolkoff recalled, she was blindsided when, more than a year after the inauguration, The New York Times reported that Trump's inaugural committee had paid her event-planning firm more than $26 million, sparking headlines around the world suggesting she had personally pocketed all or much of that money. The inaugural committee, a private tax-exempt organization, raised nearly $107 million in donations and spent $104 million of that on the event, the most ever for an inauguration - twice as much as President Barack Obama's first. Without responding to Winston Wolkoff's specific allegations, Trump's inaugural committee said in a statement to ABC News that it "disagrees with description of this historic event," adding that it "will decline to engage in her effort to sell books." A White House spokesman similarly accused Winston Wolkoff of trying to "profit off lies and mischaracterizations meant to harm the First Family." 'Stabbed me in the back' She declined to provide ABC News with materials, including documents, to support any of the claims outlined in her book or interview. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York and local attorneys general in New Jersey and Washington, D.C. "I'm working with three different prosecutors, and it's taken over my life," she told ABC News, referring to the U.S. Propelled at least in part by later comments from Winston Wolkoff about her time working on the inauguration, local and federal investigators began scrutinizing millions of dollars in allegedly excessive and inexplicable expenditures.
In late 2016, she started working for the Trump team, first as a senior adviser to help "produce" Trump's inauguration and then, after the inauguration, as an unpaid adviser to Melania Trump. Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump's chief of staff and spokeswoman, called Winston Wolkoff's book a collection of "mistruths" and "revenge" tactics, saying, "Anybody who secretly tapes their self-described best friend is, by definition, dishonest."Ī longtime planner of gala events for Vogue magazine and clients of her own consulting firm, Winston Wolkoff said she counted Melania Trump as a close friend for more than a decade. But, she insisted, "I can back up everything that's in the book 100%. "I'm not going to comment on whether there's audio or not," Winston Wolkoff said.
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