<i>[jazzy music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: I’m Maggie Haberman.</i> <i>My colleagues and I in DC have followed a presidency</i> <i>that is no stranger to scandal.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>Now, federal investigators and Congress</i> <i>are taking a look at a controversy</i> <i>surrounding the president’s very first day in office.</i> - This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period. <i>MAGGIE: No, not that controversy.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>At $107 million,</i> <i>Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration</i> <i>raised the most money of any in history.</i> <i>Naturally...</i> <i>that raises some questions.</i> - Why was so much money given? - Who was approving all this? - What’s going on? Who has power? <i>MARK: If you want to look back and say,</i> “What have been some of Trump’s biggest problems?” <i>It’s been investigations</i> <i>into foreign influence on his administration.</i> <i>Money and the impact of money on his administration.</i> All of that has its origins in inauguration weekend. <i>[jazzy music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: Inaugurations are always a magnet</i> <i>for money and influence,</i> <i>but photos, videos,</i> <i>and social media posts from that week</i> <i>capture brokers, donors,</i> <i>and deal-makers from around the world,</i> <i>all drawn to a new leader with a new style.</i> - Should I keep the Twitter going or not? Keep it going? I think so. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: This is an anatomy</i> <i>of the most expensive inauguration in history.</i> <i>One where those left holding their noses</i> <i>were the ones we might least expect.</i> - This thing is not a swamp, actually. It’s a gold-plated hot tub with no drain. So they give you the two bottles of champagne. They give you the cubanos. You sit in there with them and they love you. You love them, and they subvert the interests of the American people. <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: By tradition, the United States Congress</i> <i>is the host of every presidential inauguration.</i> <i>But everything else, the parade,</i> <i>the concerts, the dinners, the balls,</i> <i>that’s left up to the incoming president.</i> - Now, the fun begins, okay? Now the fun begins. We’re going to do a really good job. <i>MAGGIE: To raise the money for this days-long party,</i> <i>the President-Elect appoints</i> <i>the Presidential Inaugural Committee.</i> - Tomorrow, at 11:30, we’re one country, and he will be the 45th president of the United States of America, Donald Trump. [cheers and applause] <i>MAGGIE: For the chairman of his</i> <i>Presidential Inaugural Committee,</i> <i>Trump chose his long-time friend, Tom Barrack.</i> <i>Barrack is wealthy real estate investor.</i> <i>They first met back in the 80’s,</i> <i>around the time Barrack sold Trump</i> <i>the Plaza Hotel in New York.</i> <i>To serve as his Deputy Chairman,</i> <i>Barrack appointed political consultant Rick Gates.</i> <i>Gates had been a deputy to Paul Manafort,</i> <i>who had served as Trump’s campaign chairman.</i> <i>Manafort was fired following a New York Times report</i> <i>on a ledger listing secret payments</i> <i>earmarked for his work on behalf</i> <i>of the President of Ukraine.</i> <i>It’s the kind of thing that might have kept</i> <i>most people off of an inaugural,</i> <i>but it was not seen as a disqualifier here.</i> - Can I actually have “The Financial Times” out here? Is this—is that bad marketing? - I’m fine with it. - Okay, fine. - We welcome all of the news industry. Here’s a “New York Times,” in case you need one. - As you know, I’ve subscribed to this, I think, since I’m 10 years old. - I do know that. - Know thy enemy. - [laughs] <i>Steve Bannon was at Trump Tower</i> <i>shortly after the election when Tom Barrack came</i> <i>to discuss plans for the upcoming inaugural.</i> - Tom came back. We had this meeting on the 26th floor with the President. - Do you remember anything about that meeting? Anything stand out to you about what he said about his vision, or what he— - Well, I just think we had different— we had different visions. Remember, I’m a populist... - Mm-hmm. - And I had made an argument, we should be $1 less than Obama, and we should not even have the lunch. Do the inauguration, not have any big parties or anything like that. Very barebones. The country’s in a crisis. This is why I’m president. I’m here to do something very different that that’s been done before. And other people had other ideas, and I under— my idea didn’t win. <i>ANCHOR 1: Trump’s inaugural committee raised</i> <i>a really stunning amount of money.</i> <i>ANCHOR 2: Tons more money.</i> - Record-breaking amount of money. - Incredible amount of money. <i>MAGGIE: Inaugurations are expensive,</i> <i>but Barrack and his team broke records,</i> <i>raising $107 million.</i> <i>For context, President Obama set the previous record</i> <i>at $53 million.</i> - They’re taking in and spending twice as much as the previous two occupants of the White House. - If I were a big donor to the Trump inaugural, I want to know, well then, where did my money go? <i>MAGGIE: Greg Jenkins ran</i> <i>George W. Bush’s second inauguration.</i> - Back in our day, when we were doing, you know, limited amounts of money, people don’t want it to be spent— - Right. - Irresponsibly. <i>MAGGIE: Steve Kerrigan oversaw both</i> <i>of Barack Obama’s inaugurations.</i> <i>[classical music]</i> <i>We presented both Greg and Steve</i> <i>with internal spending documents given to us</i> <i>by a source close to the Trump inaugural committee.</i> <i>The documents don’t show missing money.</i> <i>Quite the opposite.</i> <i>They suggest that the committee</i> <i>spent nearly every penny.</i> - Okay, your events are 31 1/2 million. Their total for events. - 44 million, plus 26.68. - 70,700,000. - 30 million more than we raised total. Where’d it go? <i>MAGGIE: The vendor receiving the most money</i> <i>was a company called WIS Media Partners.</i> <i>It was incorporated about six weeks before the inauguration</i> <i>by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff,</i> <i>a well-connected events planner</i> <i>who had produced events for “Vogue”</i> <i>and New York City’s Fashion Week,</i> <i>and who also happened to be friends with Melania Trump.</i> <i>For eight weeks of work, her company was paid</i> <i>$1.6 million, of which she took $500,000.</i> - That’s bananas. She got paid more than our senior staff did. - Maybe this is all legit, but I’d say it’s a foolish way to spend money. <i>[tense music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: Five major vendors had some connection</i> <i>to the Trump family or their close friends.</i> <i>Together, they collected about 1/3rd</i> <i>of all the money spent, including 1.5 million</i> <i>that went to the Trump Hotel in Washington.</i> <i>It wasn’t just who got paid that raised flags.</i> <i>It was what that money bought.</i> <i>In addition to spending far more</i> <i>on the public-facing events,</i> <i>Trump’s committee also lavished money</i> <i>on the private fund-raising dinners.</i> <i>Events intended to thank donors</i> <i>who gave to the inaugural committee.</i> - Oh, because people are— - Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising... fundraising...fundraising. We haven’t even gotten to a public event yet. <i>♪ ♪</i> It certainly explains how they were able to raise so much money. - Like, this, the candlelight dinner. You have to pay a quarter of a million to a million dollars. That’s for— - A quarter of a million to a million dollars, okay. - Right. - And what do you get for that? - This dinner. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: January 19th, 2017.</i> <i>Inauguration Eve.</i> <i>Guests arrive at Union Station for the candle light dinner,</i> <i>one of eight events offered to donors that week.</i> <i>Guests were treated to:</i> <i>$65 seat cushions.</i> <i>$130,000 in commemorative bowls from Tiffany’s,</i> <i>and $675,000 in decorations,</i> <i>including six 32-foot tall obelisks</i> <i>covered in green moss.</i> <i>Even the staffers were given make-up treatments</i> <i>that cost $500 each.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>The committee set no cap</i> <i>on how much individuals could give,</i> <i>taking in 30 private checks</i> <i>for a million dollars or more.</i> <i>MARK: When you look at individual donations</i> <i>of a million dollars,</i> it immediately triggers this question. What are they expecting? <i>MAGGIE: One thing that caught our eye</i> <i>was a man who appears in no photos we could find,</i> <i>but whom the red carpet camera happened to capture.</i> <i>His name is Viktor Vekselberg.</i> <i>Vekselberg is a Russian oligarch</i> <i>with strong ties to the Kremlin.</i> <i>He was one of several Russians in town that week</i> <i>who would later find themselves embroiled</i> <i>in the Mueller investigation.</i> <i>Here’s Maria Butina, the Russian foreign agent</i> <i>who infiltrated the NRA.</i> <i>And here at an unofficial inaugural event</i> <i>is Natalia Veselnitskaya.</i> <i>She’s the Kremlin-linked lawyer</i> <i>who famously met at Trump Tower</i> <i>to offer dirt on Hillary Clinton</i> <i>to senior members of the Trump campaign.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>KENNETH: You see Ukrainian politicians</i> <i>on their Facebook pages bragging about</i> <i>how they got access to some of these</i> <i>exclusive black-tie balls and talking about,</i> <i>“This is the tradition in America.”</i> Where you meet the incoming administration over a glass of champagne and talk about important issues. <i>MAGGIE: But we learned that in the frenzied race</i> <i>to get a seat at the table,</i> <i>some would-be influencers were left out in the cold.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: The inauguration of Donald Trump</i> <i>attracted a lot of attention</i> <i>from prominent Russians and Ukrainians.</i> <i>But in the race for access,</i> <i>some would end up getting trampled.</i> <i>This is Pavel Fuks.</i> <i>He’s a Ukrainian/Russian businessman</i> <i>worth a quarter of a billion dollars.</i> <i>He made his money in the post-Soviet real estate boom,</i> <i>and once tried to build a tower in Moscow</i> <i>with then-businessman Donald Trump.</i> - Please. - Thank you. Is that me? - No, it’s me. - Got you, okay. I got my papers, too. So at what stage did you start to have conversations with Donald Trump? - [speaking native language] - So you came to him seeking an investment, and he turned around and said, “Actually, you should pay me for my name.” - [speaking native language] - Why did you want to go to Donald Trump’s inauguration, or the events around the inauguration? - [speaking native language] <i>MAGGIE: There’s just one problem.</i> <i>It’s illegal for foreigners to donate to an inaugural fund.</i> <i>But Fuks says he was introduced</i> <i>to a Ukrainian-American donor named Yuri Vanetik,</i> <i>who could get tickets.</i> - [speaking native language] <i>MAGGIE: Messages show that Vanetik knew</i> <i>it was illegal for foreign nationals</i> <i>to pay the inaugural committee directly for tickets.</i> <i>And so, Fuks says, he wired Vanetik $200,000.</i> - [speaking native language] <i>MAGGIE: Fuks says Vanetik didn’t come up with</i> <i>any tickets to official inaugural committee events.</i> - [speaking native language] - I mean, there is no StubHub for secondary inauguration VIP passes, and Pavel Fuks went through the equivalent of a scalper, and he got burned. <i>MAGGIE: In a statement, Vanetik says</i> <i>he referred Fuks to a lobbying firm</i> <i>to arrange events for him, but never intended</i> <i>to use Fuk’s money to buy tickets</i> <i>from the inaugural committee.</i> [cheers and applause] <i>Ultimately, Fuks was relegated to a bit role</i> <i>in the inaugural saga.</i> - Thank you very much, everybody, thank you. <i>MAGGIE: But inside the exclusive events,</i> <i>there were those with a seat at the table</i> <i>who knew that others wanted in,</i> <i>and that by holding the door open,</i> <i>they could hold their hand out for a big payday.</i> <i>[tense music]</i> <i>KENNETH: Two nights before the inauguration,</i> <i>we really got our first glimpse</i> <i>as to how the Trump Hotel was going to become</i> a hive of activity around the Trump administration. <i>MAGGIE: It was that night that the President-Elect</i> <i>made an unannounced stop at his own hotel.</i> <i>KENNETH: And Trump comes in, and there are videos of this,</i> that show that everyone goes nuts. [cheers and applause] FAN 1: Thank you, Mr. Trump! They love you, they love you! FAN 2: We just got real close. FAN 3: We thank you. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. <i>[dramatic music]</i> KENNETH: Here he is, the king of his new domain. You see this procession of people who are trying to kiss the ring, to some extent. <i>MAGGIE: One of those was a top inaugural fundraiser</i> <i>named Elliott Broidy.</i> <i>It’s difficult to find anyone else</i> <i>who would make more money off of his connection</i> <i>to the inauguration.</i> <i>Elliott Broidy is a Los Angeles financier</i> <i>who got his start as an accountant for Glen Bell</i> <i>who founded Taco Bell.</i> <i>He rose to become a major Republican fundraiser</i> <i>only to plead guilty to bribing</i> <i>New York state officials in 2009.</i> <i>As a convicted criminal, he was mostly ostracized</i> <i>by his fellow Republicans.</i> <i>That is, until the 2016 election when,</i> <i>among others, Donald Trump tapped him</i> <i>as a key fundraiser for his campaign.</i> <i>KENNETH: A year after the inauguration, one morning,</i> <i>I wake up, I check my inbox, and there’s an email</i> <i>from of these anonymous accounts.</i> Totally untraceable, asking me if I’d be interested <i>in taking a look at some emails</i> <i>that the sender suggested were quite explosive.</i> <i>MAGGIE: The emails belonged to Elliott Broidy.</i> <i>They revealed a plan to invite foreign officials</i> <i>to exclusive events at Trump’s inauguration.</i> - So here, we have a letter from Elliott Broidy to these two Angolan officials. One guy who was the Minister of Defense at the time, and the other guy, who was their CIA director, saying that Broidy is attaching, um— invitations to the inaugural. <i>MAGGIE: But Broidy, who acquired</i> <i>a private security firm in 2015,</i> <i>implies that he expects something in return.</i> - Not necessarily a coincidence, we see he’s attaching a copy of the requested contract for Angola, suggesting that their ability to use Broidy’s access to the inauguration is linked, in some ways, to their willingness to enter into this contract. This doesn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination here. <i>[tense music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: Three days before the inauguration,</i> <i>the officials arranged a $6 million payment</i> <i>to Broidy’s firm.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And we spotted one of them here</i> <i>at the candle light dinner at Union Station.</i> <i>KENNETH: There’s nothing explicitly illegal</i> about using your access to an administration, or in this case, an incoming administration, to try to help your business. It’s just rare to see it layed out quite so starkly and blatantly. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: Broidy didn’t quit after the inauguration.</i> <i>In case after case,</i> <i>as he sought new business for his firm,</i> <i>he promised potential clients access</i> <i>to the Trump administration,</i> <i>securing contracts worth</i> <i>hundreds of millions of dollars.</i> <i>And while Broidy used the inauguration</i> <i>to get business deals,</i> <i>others simply traded on their close ties</i> <i>to the new administration.</i> <i>[jazzy music]</i> <i>Michael Flynn collected $530,000</i> <i>as part of the Turkish government’s lobbying effort</i> <i>to extradite a dissident.</i> <i>Paul Manafort tried to use his status as campaign chairman</i> <i>to “get whole” with a Russian oligarch</i> <i>whom he owed $26 million.</i> <i>And remember this guy, Viktor Vekselberg?</i> <i>It turns out a firm connected to him paid $580,000</i> <i>to Trump’s personal fixer, Michael Cohen.</i> <i>MARK: This was a administration</i> and a group of people who were, in a way, kind of a blank slate in terms of policy. <i>In terms of thinking about how government should run.</i> <i>So if you could influence</i> the sort of the central decision makers, you could cut through red tape. <i>Then, we also see a Trump team</i> <i>that is less sensitive to the rules</i> <i>and the way that things had traditionally been done,</i> and more willing to allow these folks who are trying to gain access to do so, sometimes paying a lot of money to do so. <i>MAGGIE: It was a tone set by the President,</i> <i>but as we came to find out,</i> <i>he would find a willing partner</i> <i>in the man he chose to kick off his presidency.</i> <i>ANCHOR: We’re gonna go live now</i> <i>to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.</i> <i>Tonight, the Chairman’s dinner where President-Elect Trump</i> <i>will dine with diplomats, dignitaries,</i> <i>and campaign donors.</i> <i>[mysterious music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: January 17th, 2017, the Chairman’s global dinner.</i> <i>The $4 million dinner featured a custom-built stage</i> <i>with dancers from Steve Wynn’s casino</i> <i>and a performance by the band Alabama.</i> <i>And Tom Barrack was the host.</i> <i>TOM: So I think what you’re going to find</i> is a President-Elect who has a keen sensitivity to listening, to understanding. <i>SHARON: He has his own dinner,</i> at which Trump makes an appearance. [cheers and applause] - Barrack gets to invite 500 people for a dinner that costs millions. <i>MAGGIE: Barrack billed the event</i> <i>as a Washington tradition, a way for foreign ambassadors</i> <i>to meet the administration they’d be working with.</i> <i>But a confidential guest list obtained by the “Times”</i> <i>shows there was more going on.</i> <i>He invited dozens of top donors</i> <i>seated at tables right along with foreign dignitaries.</i> <i>Other guests seemed to have little or no connection</i> <i>to the inauguration. Only to Barrack.</i> <i>These are wealthy, well-connected investors</i> <i>and developers from the Middle East.</i> <i>And alongside them, top executives</i> <i>from Barrack’s own company, Colony NorthStar.</i> <i>SHARON: Here is, you know, another way</i> to demonstrate his influence with the Trump White House <i>to foreign officials,</i> who then can invest in his private equity fund. <i>[tense music]</i> <i>MAGGIE: ProPublica published a leaked memo</i> <i>from Barrack’s company, Colony NorthStar,</i> <i>written just weeks after the dinner.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>It suggests the company could capitalize</i> <i>on its new political clout.</i> <i>A spokesperson for Barrack’s company said</i> <i>they never acted upon the plan outlined in the memo.</i> <i>They said it was written by Barrack’s deputy,</i> <i>Rick Gates, the same person who would later plead guilty</i> <i>to fraud stemming from his work in foreign lobbying.</i> <i>SHARON: I mean, the Chairman’s dinner</i> <i>was one of the biggest events that they put on.</i> He wasn’t just this friend of Donald Trump who was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. <i>It’s going to help his business.</i> <i>MAGGIE: In a statement, Barrack’s spokesperson said...</i> - And you said recently, “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.” - You better believe it. - So what specifically did they do? - If I ask them, if I need them— you know, most of the people on this stage, I’ve given to. Just so you understand. And you know what, when I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. - So what— - And that’s a broken system. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: As a candidate, Donald Trump pledged</i> <i>to reduce the influence of money in politics,</i> <i>but his $107 million inauguration</i> <i>did just the opposite.</i> - Hey, how are you? - How are you doing? - Good. I’m here to see Mr. Scaramucci. <i>MAGGIE: So what do campaign insiders think</i> <i>about the President’s first day?</i> - The inauguration is bringing in all this money. Trump’s now won, so there’s all kinds of incentives why you want to get in with him. You get guys like Gates. You get guys like Elliot Broidy. We now know there are investigations. - I—I don’t think money tied back up to Trump. He made two or three really bad personnel decisions early on. You hire the creature from the Black Lagoon, they’re going to bring in little creatures, you know, from the Black Lagoon. And instead of draining the swamp, they’re going to dump cesspool water into the swamp. But if you’re saying, okay, they were a group of scumbags that were tied to the situation that were catchin’ dough. And so, that’s why someone has to step back from it and look at it and say, okay, what do you need to do to regulate this? In my industry, we’re arguably one of the most regulated industries in the world. Why? People are greedy. And greed always overcomes wisdom, Matthew. And so, the problem in Washington is they have nobody really hand-checking them. There’s no referee anymore, and so these guys are just in a full feeding frenzy in Washington. <i>[soft music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: In a democracy,</i> <i>governments come and governments go.</i> <i>But rarely has there been</i> <i>a transition of power quite like this.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MAGGIE: There is supposed to be a line</i> <i>between government service and private benefit,</i> <i>and there has been a pervasive sense</i> <i>that that has blurred in the Trump administration.</i> And the inaugural is almost like a neon sign reminder of that. [cheers and applause] <i>[jazzy music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i>