Gates Testimony Dredges Up Trump Inaugural Spending Mystery

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s inaugural committee pushed back hard last summer on questions about whether the unprecedented $107 million budget for the event was fraught with cost overruns and misspending. A top inauguration official assured The Associated Press that spending had been restrained and monitored. In court last week, that same official — Rick Gates — acknowledged that he personally may have pocketed some of the inaugural committee’s money. Gates, the government’s star witness in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s financial fraud trial, admitted to Manafort’s lawyers that he “possibly” wrongfully submitted personal expenses to the inaugural committee for reimbursement. Though only a footnote to Gates’ disclosure of tax fraud, extramarital affairs and embezzlement from Manafort, the admission raised new questions about how well the inaugural committee tracked its own spending and why Gates was chosen for a top inauguration job in the first place. It’s not clear how much money Gates may have pocketed or whether his testimony will prompt the committee to review spending, especially given Gates acknowledged stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Manafort through fake expenses.