Now that his father is no longer president and cannot shield him from being charged with the crimes he has allegedly committed over the years, Donald Trump Jr. is facing being indicted on a plethora of criminal offenses.
One of those is perjury, and a blockbuster report from Mother Jones makes it clear that Don Jr. did indeed lie under oath in a deposition he gave to the office of Karl Racine, the district attorney for Washington, D.C.:
“The matter at hand was a lawsuit filed in 2020 against Donald Trump’s inauguration committee and the Trump Organization by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC. The suit claims that the inauguration committee misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family.”
Racine took depositions from multiple people who were intimately involved in the Trump inaugural, including investor Tom Barrack, who chaired the inaugural committee, Rick Gates, who served as the committee’s deputy chair, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
Additionally, Racine deposed Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a producer for the inaugural who is now a lead witness cooperating with the investigation of possible wrongdoing by the Trump inaugural committee.
Despite the key role she played in planning the inauguration, Don Jr. acted as if he had never met Wolkoff when he was asked about her for his depositon:
During his deposition, Trump Jr. was asked about Winston Wolkoff: “Do you know her?” He replied, “I know of her. I think I’ve met her, but I don’t know her. If she was in this room I’m not sure I would recognize her.” He added, “I had no involvement with her.”
However, a video shot the night before the inauguration proves that Don Jr. was lying when he claimed he didn’t know Wolkoff:
Don Jr. clearly knew Wolkoff, and profusely praised her:
“This footage is from a tony candlelight dinner held at Union Station in Washington, DC, the night before Trump’s inauguration. This soiree was one of the official inauguration events. (A million-dollar contribution to the inauguration committee earned a Trump donor a ticket.) Here Trump Jr. can be seen profusely praising Barrack and Winston Wolkoff for the ‘incredible’ work they did. It seems he did know her.”
As for Don Jr’s assertion that he’d had “no involvement” with Wolkoff, text messages destroy that claim, too:
“On January 17, 2017, an assistant for Ivanka Trump texted Winston Wolkoff and said that Trump Jr. wanted to speak to her, providing Winston Wolkoff with his cell number.”
Wolkoff noted in a statement on Racine’s investigation that she believes the Trump family did indeed try to profit from the inaugural:
“I did not think it was right for the Trump Family or the Trump Family’s businesses to be financially profiting from the presidential Inauguration. It was a gross mismanagement of funds and an abuse of authority, and I made it very clear to people in the Trump Family and the inauguration committee how I felt.”
On numerous occasions during the deposition given to Racine’s office, Don Jr. used the old standard weasel term that he didn’t remember:
“During his deposition, Trump Jr. frequently replied, ‘I don’t recall,’ and he downplayed his involvement in preparation for his father’s inauguration in January 2017. In several exchanges, he made statements that are contradicted by documents or the recollections of others and that appear to be false.”
Lying in a sworn deposition is a crime: Perjury. The penalty for perjury in the District of Columbia is a $5,000 fine and up to ten years in prison.
Lock him up!
