Trump inaugural committee subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for financial documents

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee confirmed Monday that it had received a subpoena from federal prosecutors in New York as part of an investigation into the group’s fundraising activities.

“While we are still reviewing the subpoena, it is our intention to cooperate with the inquiry,” the committee said in a statement.

Owen Blicksilver, a committee spokesman, declined to elaborate on the scope of the government’s request.

The investigation is being led by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, and represents potentially more legal trouble for the Trump administration as it continues to confront the ongoing inquiry into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and other spinoff investigations.

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A copy of the new subpoena, reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, indicated that prosecutors had sought all documents linked to the committee’s fundraising activities, including donors and those who provided services to the organization.

The committee had raised more than $100 million to host events related to Trump’s inauguration.

The inaugural committee inquiry is separate from the investigation led by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller whose inquiry is focused on possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Nevertheless, prosecutors leading the inaugural probe also are believed to be reviewing whether the committee received contributions from foreign sources, according to previous accounts by the New York Times.

Federal law prohibits such donations.

The investigation rose, at least in part, out of information seized while investigating Michael Cohen, the president's former attorney and fixer. 

In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for a host of crimes, including making secret hush payments before the 2016 election to women who accused Trump of having affairs and lying to Congress.

During April raids on Cohen's home, office, and hotel room, federal investigators discovered a taped conversation between Cohen and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who worked with the inaugural committee, the Wall Street Journal reported last year.  

The contents of the recording are unclear but Wolkoff, according to the Journal, voiced concerns over how some of the inaugural funds were being spent. 

Disclosure of the new subpoena also comes at a politically fraught time for Trump, who is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address Tuesday and as a possible second government shutdown looms over a clash with Democrat lawmakers about funding for the president’s long-promised border wall.