and that “I can never justify the price I paid.”)

Barrack, 72, has said in interviews that he grew close to Trump, 73, during “soft moments” such as their divorces and the birth of children. A major fundraiser for the 2016 campaign, he spoke warmly of his friend at the convention in Cleveland — flattering him by saying, among other things, that the New York real estate mogul had played him “like a Steinway piano” in business dealings.

In the early days of the administration, the newly minted president leaned often on his longtime friend for counsel and sympathy. Trump and Barrack sometimes would speak multiple times a day, according to the senior administration official, often calling Barrack late at night to seek advice and catch up. Trump has spokendug into Barrack’s handling of the inauguration fund, Trump has privately soured on his mentor.

In July, the New York Times reported that the public integrity unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Brooklyn was investigating whether Barrack violated laws requiring lobbyists to register when they work for foreign interests, though he has not been accused of any wrongdoing. In particular, the Times reported, prosecutors were probing whether the inauguration let foreigners from the Middle East use straw donors to donate to the inauguration.

Trump was surprised to learn elsewhere, according to a senior administration official, that the inaugural committee paid $26 million to the firm of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a New York social planner who was previously close to First Lady Melania Trump and was a senior adviser to