Diamond and Silk, the Trump-loving duo, could be in some trouble.
During their testimony before Congress on Thursday, the popular YouTube personalities, also known as Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, treaded into dubious territory. Asked by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, whether they had ever been paid by President Trump’s campaign, Hardaway replied, “We’ve never been paid by the Trump campaign.”
But FEC records say otherwise. As my colleague Melissa Quinn reported, in a filing from November 2016, the campaign disclosed paying them $1,274.94 for “field consulting.” Confronted with the FEC record later in the hearing, the pair claimed that payment was actually a reimbursement for plane tickets, not compensation for consulting work, and the campaign erred in its categorization.
“Actually, this was for, because we were asked to join the Women for Trump tour back in 2016, and Miss Lara Trump asked that our airline tickets be refunded back to us because we paid for those tickets when we went from New York to Ohio,” said Richardson.
Hardaway and Richardson were under oath. If they knew the campaign paid them and lied about it in their testimony, they perjured themselves. Under normal circumstances, it would be hard to imagine that wasn’t the case. But on the other hand, the Trump campaign was a small, unseasoned operation— in that context, such a mistake hardly seems out of the question. And Richardson’s explanation for the sum is specific and seems plausible enough.
If they were paid for consulting work by the campaign, even political novices like Hardaway and Richardson must have known as much in order to carry out the business and process the payment.
Could they have forgotten about the payment? Sure, it wasn’t extravagant as far as consulting fees go. But if that were the case, they could have said as much in their testimony. If it’s true they were paid for field consulting, as the campaign reported to the FEC, then it would seem as though they doubled down on a lie by claiming the payment was an airfare reimbursement— and a specific one at that.
If the Trump campaign erred and they can prove it (Richardson says she has an email to substantiate their claim), the viral sensations should be okay. If they lied, they’re in trouble.
