The Trump Inauguration’s ‘Unconscionable Contract’
Trump, Inc.
WNYC Studios
4.6 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2020
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Trump Inc listeners. |
| 0:02.7 | It's Ilya. |
| 0:04.2 | If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know we have a lot of questions |
| 0:08.3 | about the nonprofit committee that organized the parties around Donald Trump's inauguration. |
| 0:13.5 | A little over a year ago, my pro-publica colleague Justin Elliott and I first reported that |
| 0:19.3 | the Trump Hotel in DC was paid by the Trump inaugural committee to host events. |
| 0:25.8 | So the president's business made money from a nonprofit hosting a civic celebration. |
| 0:33.4 | But it went beyond that. |
| 0:34.9 | A lead planner on the inaugural committee warned that the hotel was overcharging the committee. |
| 0:40.6 | She wrote this warning in an email and sent it to Ivanka Trump. |
| 0:44.8 | Now we have an update. |
| 0:46.6 | On January 22nd, 2020, about a year after our reporting and three years after the inauguration, |
| 0:53.3 | the attorney general of Washington, DC charged the inaugural committee, the Trump organization |
| 0:58.9 | and the Trump Hotel in civil court with abusing the laws on nonprofits. |
| 1:04.8 | Quote, members of the Trump family were aware of and involved in the negotiation of this |
| 1:10.8 | unconscionable contract. |
| 1:13.8 | At the center of the whole thing is a four-day rental agreement for the ballroom and some |
| 1:17.9 | adjacent spaces at the Trump Hotel. |
| 1:20.4 | An agreement Justin and I examined in detail last year in our episode about the inauguration |
| 1:25.8 | and its chairman, Tom Barrick. |
| 1:28.6 | So we're sharing that episode with you again now. |
| 1:32.3 | And just one note before we hit play, we did not immediately receive comment about the |
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