Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who worked on President Donald Trump's inaugural committee and served as an adviser to first lady Melania Trump, on Monday slammed reports she was fired from her White House position.
Winston Wolkoff, who previously helped organize the Met Gala, also was revealed to be speaking to federal prosecutors about donations to the president's inauguration.
She snapped back at the allegations from more than a year ago that she was forced out of the Trump White House because she profited from her role on Trump's inaugural committee.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to Melania Trump, slammed reports she was fired from the White House more than a year after it happened
Federal prosecutors are examining donations to President Donald Trump's inauguration committee
'Was I fired? No,' Winston Wolkoff said in a statement to The New York Times. 'Did I personally receive $26 million or $1.6 million? No. Was I thrown under the bus? Yes.'
Winston Wolkoff served as an informal, unpaid adviser to Melania Trump in the East Wing of the White House until February 2018 when she left the position amid controversy.
She was in the news at the time after reports showed that her firm, WIS Media Partners, received a $26 million payment for its work on the inaugural.
The firm in turn spent $24 million on subcontractors, a person familiar with the inaugural planning told DailyMail.com at the time. The source said Winston Wolkoff provided 'the whole look and feel – the creative vision' for 18 or 20 inaugural events.
Her personal take from Trump's inaugural committee was reported to be $1.62 million although later reports showed she received about $500,000 personally while the rest went to other producers working on the event.
According to the committee's tax filings, Wolkoff's WIS Media Partners was formed 45 days before the inauguration and got paid the most of any vendor for its work.
In the meantime, Winston Wolkoff's lawyer told inaugural committee officials that she has been cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan since last fall, The Times reported.
The Southern District of Manhattan is investigating the inaugural committee's spending and fundraising.
Winston Wolkoff told The Times she could not discuss inaugural spending because of a non-disclosure she had signed with the committee.
If the committee 'were to release me from this obligation, I would be able to speak freely without the fear of legal or financial repercussions,' she said. 'Otherwise, I am regrettably unable to provide any substantive comment.'
When Winston Wolkoff left the administration last year, officials said she was ousted because the first couple were angry over the spending for the January 2017 ceremony that swore Trump into office.
But in a private communication with Winston Wolkoff on Feb. 20, 2018, The Times reported, deputy White House counsel Stefan Passantino told her that the administration was terminating all types of 'gratuitous service agreements' - such as the one she had with the administration - amid a controversy over security clearances involving other officials.
She was assured by 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 to the newspaper. 'So this is not personal.'
And a letter from Melania Trump to Winston Wolkoff noted that the decision affected 'all' such contracts, was 'not personal' and was made on a 'professional level by White
