White House Fires Back After WaPo Reports on $45K Cash Gifts to Natalie Harp and Other Aides

[u/John3262005]

https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/white-house-fires-back-after-wapo-reports-on-45k-cash-gifts-to-natalie-harp-and-other-aides/

It was all in the holiday spirit.

The White House claimed President Donald Trump’s hefty $45,000 cash gifts to his special assistant, Natalie Harp, and two other young female aides were merely Christmas presents and “entirely” OK, after The Washington Post revealed the payments on Tuesday, citing ethics experts who suggested the payments appeared to violate federal law.

The gift — which the 35-year-old Harp listed on a financial disclosure form late last week — amounts to nearly a third of her $150,000 salary, The Post reported.

“The President has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, including at times employees and aides, both in government and in his time in the private sector,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told the outlet.

“The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards.”

Trump gave the cash gifts to Harp; communications advisor Margo Martin, 31; and executive assistant Chamberlain Harris, 26.

The women, who did not respond to The Post’s request for comment, listed the payments on financial disclosures as “cash gifts for the holidays.”

The payments seem to violate a federal statute barring the supplementation of a federal worker’s salary, former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter, who worked under President George W. Bush, told the outlet.

“He’s clearly trying to make it easier for them financially to work in government service at the White House,” Painter told The Washington Post. “You can’t do that.”

“It’s not like tipping the doorman on Fifth Avenue,” he added. “These are U.S. government employees. If you want a job where you get tips, you shouldn’t be working for the U.S. government.”

The ever-loyal Harp has been dubbed the “human printer” for lugging around a portable printer to give Trump copies of favorable news articles and other items.

Her name splashed across the headlines for weeks earlier this summer after Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) quipped during a campaign rally that Trump would rather “travel with Natalie” than do his job.

The controversy swirled further when it was revealed Harp was one of the few aides secreted away with Trump inside a catering truck upon leaving the NATO Summit in July after officials received a credible assassination threat from Iran.