Ms. Winston Wolkoff said she could not discuss the inaugural spending, saying that she had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the committee that had no expiration date. And $2 million of the WIS money was used to cover costs related to the events-planning firm Hargrove, the committee’s second-largest vendor, the documents show. He worked with Ms. Winston Wolkoff on the first Governor’s Ball at the White House, according to a person close to her. Yet in private communications with Ms. Winston Wolkoff on Feb. 20, 2018, a deputy White House counsel, Stefan Passantino, told her that the administration was terminating all types of “gratuitous service agreements,” the type of employment agreement she had with the White House, around the same time amid a controversy over security clearances involving other officials. She was assured by Mr. Passantino that “you didn’t do anything wrong, and there’s nothing wrong with this kind of contract, and I don’t want you to think that this has anything to do with” the inaugural spending, she recalled.

Source: New York Times May 06, 2019 22:30 UTC