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Aide Paid $26M To Plan Inauguration No Longer Working With White House

The first lady hired Stephanie Winston Wolkoff as a special government employee in early 2017.
Posted at 10:43 AM, Feb 27, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-27 10:43:02-05

The White House says first lady Melania Trump is no longer working with one of her senior advisers, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.

"The Office of the First Lady severed the gratuitous services contract with Ms. Wolkoff. We thank her for her hard work and wish her all the best," Trump's spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.

The former Vogue employee and Trump have known each other for years. The first lady hired Wolkoff as a special government employee in early 2017, and she was reportedly working on various projects on a contract basis.

The New York Times reports the contract ended earlier this month after it was revealed that an event firm Wolkoff created was paid almost $26 million by a nonprofit group that managed President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Wolkoff told The Times the firm kept just over $1.5 million to pay herself and the other employees, and that the majority of the funds went toward hiring subcontractors.

A spokeswoman for Melania Trump said the first lady had "no knowledge of how funds were spent" when it came to planning the inauguration.

Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN