Trump envoy torches Senate Dems’ Kennedy Center probe built on ‘inaccurate gossip’

By Fox News · Fox News

Kennedy Center President Richard Grenell torched Senate Democrats for opening an investigation into the national cultural center, writing to Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that his investigation relied on "inaccurate gossip" and is rife with "partisan attacks." "I am concerned about your careless attacks on me and my team," Grenell wrote in a letter to Whitehouse Thursday. "The letter you signed did not undergo basic fact-checking. It is filled with partisan attacks and false accusations. Your staff relied on anonymous sources, inaccurate gossip, and allegations from partisan reporters who never had access to the data or facts I’m happy to provide below." The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is located in Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River and serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. It is led by Grenell as its president, with President Donald Trump serving as its chair. It is a public-private institution, and receives some funding from the federal government. Whitehouse, the ranking Democrat on the Senate ’s Environment and Public Works Committee, announced earlier Thursday that the committee was investigating Grenell's leadership over the Kennedy Center and its budget while claiming the "nation’s premier arts center is being used as a slush fund and private club for Trump’s friends and political allies," according to a press release . ICONIC DC LANDMARK UNVEILS FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE AS PART OF PUSH TO REVIVE HOLIDAY SPIRIT "Contracts, invoices, and facility use agreements reveal that you operate the Center for the enrichment of your friends and acquaintances, to dole out political favors, and as a playground for the President of the United States and his allies," Whitehouse wrote of the investigation. "The Center is being looted to the tune of millions of dollars in foregone revenue, cancelled programming, unpaid use of its facilities, and wasteful spending on luxury restaurants and hotels—an unprecedented pattern of s…