Trump Should (Probably) Be Worried About This Subpoena

The wheel of investigations related to President Trump has spun back around to his inaugural committee. On Monday, federal investigators issued a wide-ranging subpoena for officials managing the nonprofit organization to turn over documents related to donors, contractors, disclosure filings and more. Reportedly of interest are a host of potential violations, including money laundering, election fraud, the possibility the committee made false statements to the Federal Election Commission and the possibility the committee accepted foreign contributions, which is illegal. The inaugural committee brought in a record $107 million in donations and, somehow, spent nearly all of it. President Obama’s 2009 inaugural committee raised a then-record $55 million (Obama’s 2013 committee raised $43 million).

“We have just received a subpoena for documents. While we are still reviewing the subpoena, it is our intention to cooperate with the inquiry,” a spokesperson for the committee told ABC News, the first outlet to report the filing.

Suspicions over how the committee spent its money were raised as early as the summer of 2017. After the committee filed its tax returns the next February, the New York Times reported on a trove of questionable expenditures suggesting the committee may have been little more than a nine-figure slush fund. In May, ABC News reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was questioning witnesses — including committee chairman Thomas Barrack — about donations to the committee, specifically those coming from donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In December, it was reported that the Southern District of New York was also investigating potential corruption within the committee. The SDNY that filed the subpoena on Monday.

The only individual named in the subpoena is venture capitalist Imaad Zuberi, who has connections to some of the countries flagged by Mueller. Records show that Zuberi’s firm, Avenue Ventures, donated $900,000 to the committee. In December 2016, Zuberi visited Trump Tower in New York with incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who along with former Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon was scheduled to meet with a delegation from Qatar. Though he wasn’t in the meetings with Trump officials, Zuberi also met with the Qataris at Trump Tower, and then met with the Qatari foreign minister the following day. The Washington Post points to Facebook posts that place Zuberi in Saudi Arabia and the UAE days later.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-subpoena-790038/