Federal prosecutors in New York are still poring over "tens of thousands of documents" related to Donald Trump's Inauguration Committee and the record-setting $107 million it took in, according to CNN.
Even as Trump has sought to block congressional investigators from getting even a single page of documentation related to an expansive array of inquiries, his Inaugural Committee has reportedly shelled out documents left and right regarding event communications, vendors, donors, budgeting and more in response to subpoenas from prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Document production finally came to a close last month, suggesting that prosecutors have what they need in order to start determining exactly where all that came from and where it ultimately went.
Former inaugural chiefs for both George W. Bush and Barack Obama have said the amount of money raised for Trump's inauguration was absurd.
“They had a third of the staff and a quarter of the events and they raised at least twice as much as we did,” Greg Jenkins said of the $42 million Bush's committee raised for his second inauguration in 2005. “So there’s the obvious question: Where did it go?"
Steve Kerrigan, who led both of Obama’s inaugural committees, added, “We literally did two inaugurations for less than the cost of that.”
But the disappearance of funds is only half of the equation. The other question is, who decided to contribute and why? The answer could fill out questions around whether foreign governments sought to influence the incoming administration through generous donations to the fund.
The SDNY inauguration inquiry is also just one of more than a dozen investigations spun off from Robert Mueller's investigation, suggesting that even as the impasse between Trump and House Democrats sucks up all the oxygen in the Beltway, an array of other investigators are working away beyond reach of the spotlight.