Former FBI official says he believes Ivanka Trump may have perjured herself in her testimony to DC prosecutors
- Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi told MSNBC Ivanka Trump may have perjured herself.
- Figliuzzi was referring to Trump's deposition by the Washington, DC Attorney General's office.
- Trump said she wasn't involved in inauguration plans. Mother Jones published her planning emails.
Former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi said he believes Ivanka Trump may have perjured herself when she told prosecutors she wasn't involved in the planning of her father's 2017 inauguration.
The Washington, DC, Attorney General's office filed a lawsuit last year against former President Trump's inauguration committee, saying the committee overpaid to book the Trump International Hotel for inauguration events. Prosecutors accused the presidential inaugural committee of "abusing nonprofit funds to enrich" the Trump family.
Ivanka Trump, who was heavily involved in the hotel's opening, was deposed by DC Attorney General Karl Racine's office in December.
In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, Figliuzzi said Trump "seems to have perjured herself about essentially saying, 'No, I had no role in the inauguration committee.'"
"There's emails and emails with her on them - right down to selecting the menu and the catering and hosting events during the inauguration," he said. "Let's add her to the list of friends and family that are caught up in the toxicity."
"Investigators and prosecutors pay attention to that because it can actually go toward the approach and strategy to a prosecution," he said.
Figliuzzi's comments were based on a new report by Mother Jones' David Corn, published Monday, which included communications showing Ivanka Trump was in contact with organizers on the committee and helping make decisions about the event.
Here are a few details from that report:
- Trump met with a member of the inauguration committee where they had "high-level" talks about the overarching theme of the event.
- Trump also discussed hosting a women's entrepreneurs event for the inauguration, which was eventually scrapped.
- An email conversation showed Trump weighing in on the committee's struggles to book A-list talent for the inauguration.
- Trump instructed an event organizer on who to invite to the candlelight dinner held the night before the inauguration.
- One committee planning document noted that the menus needed to be approved by "IT and DJT," an apparent reference to Trump and her father.
Ivanka Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Following her deposition last year, Trump tweeted that Racine's lawsuit was vindictive and politically motivated.
"This week I spent 5+ hours in a deposition with the Democrat D.C. AG's office where they questioned the rates charged by the Trump Hotel at the inauguration. I shared with them an email from 4 years ago where I sent instructions to the hotel to charge 'a fair market rate' (see below) which the hotel then did," she wrote.
"This 'inquiry' is another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness & waste of taxpayer dollars."