WASHINGTON – Trump’s family business and President Donald J.’s inaugural committee. In 2017, Trump agreed to jointly pay $ 750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the District Attorney of the District of Columbia who claims that the Trump International Hotel in Washington illegally received excessive payments from the inaugural committee.
The agreement on the civil lawsuit came without acknowledgment of wrongdoing by the Trump Organization, the former president or the inaugural committee.
But the payment is nearly three-quarters of the $ 1.03 million the case, filed by Attorney General Carl Racine of Washington, said it was paid to Mr Trump’s hotel by the founding committee on a nonprofit’s non-profit rental committee. of space in what Mr Racine claims was above the market rate and then used it in part to host a private reception for Mr Trump’s children on the evening he was sworn in as president.
The deal also came just days before the Trump family officially completed the sale of the Trump International Hotel, which will be converted into the Waldorf Astoria after Mr Trump’s name was removed from the remarkable Pennsylvania Avenue building, a few blocks from the White House.
Negotiations to settle the case intensified earlier this year after a Washington Supreme Court judge set a date for the trial in September and rejected efforts by the Trump Organization to remove him from the case, likely making members of Mr Trump’s family to be summoned in open court to testify.
“After he was elected, one of the first actions Donald Trump took was to illegally use his own position to enrich his family,” Mr Racine said in a statement announcing Tuesday’s agreement. “Non-profit funds cannot be used to fill people’s pockets, no matter how powerful they are.
Mr Trump issued his own statement Tuesday morning, disputing the allegations.
“In view of the forthcoming sale of The Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C., and with absolutely no admission of responsibility or guilt, we have reached an agreement to end all litigation with Democrat Attorney General Racine,” the statement said. Trump. “This was another example of law enforcement weapons against the Republican Party, and in particular against the former president of the United States. So bad for our country! “
Lee Blalak, a lawyer for Trump’s inaugural committee, said the $ 750,000 payment was split equally between the commission and the Trump family’s companies, a cost the inaugural committee decided was worth it, given the process’s assessment. would generate twice as many legal accounts. High.
“The settlement was reasonable, simply to avoid the significant costs of challenging these baseless allegations in court,” he said in a statement, adding that the interim commission’s payment was covered by its insurance company.
$ 750,000 from the inauguration will be donated by Mr Racine to two non-governmental groups that promote democracy and support youth in Washington, DC, Mikva Challenge DC and DC Action, organizations founded or run by former aides of President Bill Clinton, including Abner Mikwa, a former federal judge, an adviser to Mr. Clinton’s White House and a Democrat, a member of the Illinois Congress.
Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., among many others, had to testify while Mr. Racine continued on the lawsuit against Trump’s organization and commission.
The agreement follows an action by the United States Supreme Court last year after Mr Trump resigned to reject individual legal claims that he had illegally accepted payments at the hotel from foreign government officials in violation of so-called remuneration of the Constitution.
These cases were considered controversial because Mr Trump was no longer president, which means that federal courts have never concluded whether Mr Trump has violated the constitutional ban on gifts or payments from foreign governments.
In 2019, Mr. Trump agreed to a legal agreement in New York that he misused charitable donations to benefit.
But the legal danger to Mr Trump continues, with investigations continuing in New York, where the Attorney General and two district attorneys are reviewing statements made by the Trump Organization about the value of their property and other business practices; and in Georgia, where Mr. Trump and others are being investigated to determine whether they interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
Mr Racine filed his case after an initial investigation from his office led to emails showing that Mr Trump’s former aides had been questioned, even at the time the contract with the Trump Hotel was being negotiated. in December 2016, if the inaugural committee overpaid the Trump family for the hotel rent.
“I’m a little worried about the optics of the PIC, which pays a high fee to the Trump Hotel, and the media is making a big story out of it,” said Rick Gates, a former deputy chairman of Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and a member of the planning committee. Trump’s inauguration, wrote in an email from December 2016 to Ivanka Trump, referring to the presidential committee on taking office, while they negotiated a deal to rent ballrooms and other premises at the Trump Hotel.
Trump’s investigations
Map 1 of 7
Many inquiries. Ever since Donald J. Trump has resigned, and the former president is facing civil and criminal investigations across the country over his business dealings and political activities. Here’s a look at the remarkable queries:
Westchester County Criminal Investigation. Westchester County, New York County Attorney’s Office appears to be focused, at least in part, on whether the Trump Organization has misled local officials about the value of a golf course, the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, to cut its taxes.
The price that the Trump Hotel offered to charge the inaugural committee was reduced after these initial concerns were raised, but the fee remained much higher than the one the same hotel had charged to another nonprofit during the opening, and still it was still a source of concern among Mr. Trump, emails collected during the trial.
Renting the Trump Hotel also included a special party for “friends and family” sponsored by Mr. Trump’s older children, Mr Racine said in the lawsuit, a sign of how money donated to a non-profit organization is used for personal use. convenience.
The inaugural committee set up by Mr Trump, which collects donations from corporations and individuals who later often seek official action from the Trump administration to support their business interests, has raised more than $ 107 million, far more than any other. previous assumption of office.
More than $ 1 million paid by the Trump Hotel Commission was considered by ethics watch groups as just the beginning of a model that continued through the administration, with Mr. Trump and his family using his White House status to get rich.
Under the District of Columbia law, the Attorney General oversees nonprofits, a power the service has used in recent years to investigate a local nonprofit hospital and theater company, among others, accused of embezzling charitable funds.
Mr Racine filed a petition Tuesday, asking Judge Yvonne Williams of the District of Columbia to dismiss his claim after 2020, after Trump Organization’s lawyers and the inaugural committee signed a deal detailing the terms of the proposed agreement.
The agreement notes that none of the current members of the inaugural committee participate in other non-profit organizations in the District of Columbia, eliminating any need to impose restrictions on their participation in other charities in the city, as the Attorney General of New York did. York as part of the settlement there in 2019.
In the New York case, Mr. Trump was sentenced to pay more than $ 2 million in damages for what Attorney General Leticia James described as “misuse of charitable funds for his own political gain,” including money from the Trump Foundation to pay for a portrait of Mr. Trump, who costs $ 10,000 and uses money from the foundation for a political campaign event.
Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, a non-profit group that tracks the costs of Trump’s operations, said the agreement was an important concession, although the Trump Organization did not acknowledge the wrongdoing.
“Trump has shown since the first day of his presidency that the whole enterprise is a scam,” he said. “And a lot of that was in the public eye.”
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