Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and confidant of first lady Melania Trump, continues to provide evidence and testimony to state prosecutors investigating alleged financial crimes linked to President Donald Trump's January 2017 inauguration, she told ABC News.
Winston Wolkoff is the author of "Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady." The book, described by some as a "revenge tell-all tale," paints a distasteful picture of Trump and his family. Winston Wolkoff describes the Trump White House as one "filled with friction, suspicion, deceit, deception."
She said she was "working with investigators" who are looking into potential and financial wrongdoing linked to the misuse of $107 million in donations spent on Trump's inauguration. It was the most spent on a presidential inauguration.
"I'm working with three different prosecutors and it's taken over my life," she told ABC News.
Allegations have been made that Trump associates may have siphoned-off money by inflating the costs of the event. These allegations were the catalyst for the investigations by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, the attorney general in New Jersey and the attorney general for the District of Columbia.
In January, Attorney General Karl Racine of the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit alleging the inaugural committee spent more than $1 million at the Trump International Hotel as part of a scheme "to enrich the Trump family."
Racine said Winston Wolkoff had "raised concerns" with Trump and his wife about the spending - but they ignored these. Meanwhile, the Southern District of New York said Winston Wolkoff provided documents after being subpoenaed.
An events planner, Winston Wolkoff began working for Mrs. Trump after arranging Trump's inauguration. She was fired by Mrs. Trump in February 2018 after reports emerged Winston Wolkoff allegedly made $26 million from the inauguration.
"Melania and Me" publisher Simon & Schuster, however, said Winston Wolkoff and Mrs. Trump fell out because Mrs. Trump blamed Winston Wolkoff for misusing inauguration cash.
Simon & Schuster alleged Mrs. Trump could have defended "her innocent friend and confidant. Mrs. Trump decided to stand by her husband "knowing full well who was really to blame. The betrayal nearly destroyed Wolkoff."
"[But] when the time came for her to come and speak the truth about a friend who left everything behind to help her, she turned her back on me...stabbed me in the back," Winston Wolkoff said.
"I gave Melania the benefit of the doubt that she was my friend, she was different than Donald was, she was different than the other Trump children. ... [But] a Trump is a Trump is a Trump."
Wolkoff is the former director of special events at Vogue. She produced nine Met Galas.
