Trump Organization, presidential inaugural committee settle DC lawsuit

The 2017 inauguration committee of former President Donald Trump and his company agreed to pay the District of Columbia $750,000 to settle allegations that those entities and the Trump hotel there were illegally used. nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family, the DC attorney general said Tuesday.

The Trump Organization and the committee acknowledged no wrongdoing in the settlement. But the deal is the latest legal black eye for the former president.

The settlement comes more than two years after a New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit by that state’s attorney general alleging that he used the organization from improve his Trump Foundation to benefit his 2016 campaign for the White House, as well as other illegal activity. The organization agreed to self-dissolve before that order.

Trump faces a pending criminal investigation in Georgia over allegations that he illegally interfered in the 2020 presidential election there and a civil investigation in New York, where the current attorney general, Letitia James, has said that there is evidence the Trump Organization has illegally manipulated the stated value of real estate assets for financial gain.

“No one is above the law – not even the president,” DC Attorney General Karl Racine said in a statement Tuesday announcing the settlement of a lawsuit he filed against the attorneys general. Trump entity in 2020. It allegedly made more than $1 million in improper payments to the Trump International Hotel in Washington.

“After being elected, one of the first acts that Donald Trump took was to illegally use his inauguration to enrich his family,” Racine said.

The District of Columbia alleges in its lawsuit that the President Trump Inaugural Committee, a nonprofit company, coordinated with members of the Trump family to “pay too much for event space” at the Trump Hotel during his 2017 presidential inauguration, AG’s office noted at the time.

“Although the Inaugural Committee was aware that they were paying far more than market rates, they never considered less expensive alternatives, and even paid rent on non-event days”.

“The committee also improperly used nonprofit funds to organize a private party for the Trump family at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.”

Trump’s adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, were questioned under oath by lawyers about Racine as part of the lawsuit, as was Rick Gates, the inaugural vice chair of the committee.

Gates in a December 2016 email told Ivanka Trump that he was worried about the “optics” of the Presidential Inaugural Committee being asked to pay $3.6 million for room rent and minimum food costs. .

“The cost itself seems pretty high compared to other real estate purchases for the week,” Gates told her in that email, which was included in court documents as part of the lawsuit.

Payments from the Trump entities will be split between two nonpartisan nonprofits in Washington, Mikva Challenge DC and DC Action.

Racine’s office said these groups “promote civic engagement, democracy, and youth leadership in the District.”

Trump in a statement said, “With the imminent sale of the Trump International Hotel, Washington DC, and with absolutely no liability or guilt, we have reached an agreement to put an end to all litigation. with Democratic Attorney General Racine.”

Trump added: “As crime rates are running high in our Nation’s Capital, it is essential that the Attorney General focus on those issues rather than a further leg of the Witch Hunt. This is another example of the weaponization of Law Enforcement against the Republican Party and especially the former President of the United States. It’s bad for our country. !”

Lee Blaack, attorney for the inaugural committee, in a statement, said, “As with settlement regulations, [committee] continues to dispute all statements of the Attorney General and remains confident that if this case goes to trial, PIC will prevail based on the evidence. “

“While the Attorney General is seeking no monetary damages from [Presidential Inaugural Committee] PIC and its insurance company determined that the settlement was prudent simply to avoid the substantial costs of litigation these baseless allegations through trial,” Blalack said.

“Indeed, PIC’s insurance company should have spent twice the amount of this insurance settlement just to hear this case, and so this modest settlement payment makes only common sense. Now more than five years after fulfilling its 2017 inaugural responsibilities, PIC, which today exists exclusively to settle this litigation, can finally settle its matter.”

According to a committee official, the first commission’s share of payments, paid by the insurance company, was $350,000.

The twice impeached Trump regularly blasts other investigations into himself and the Trump Organization as “witch hunts”.

Trump’s friend, Thomas Barrack, a private equity investor, was the chairman of the first fund in 2017. Barrack was arrested last July on federal charges of illegally lobbying Trump while he was. He is also the President of the United Arab Emirates.

Barrack has pleaded not guilty in that case and is awaiting trial.

Gates pleaded guilty in 2018 in a separate federal prosecution, also unrelated to the inaugural committee, of conspiring against the United States and lying to federal investigators.

He was sentenced to 45 days in prison after testifying against the head of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, a former business associate of Gates, at Manafort’s own criminal trial related to financial criminals for their work in Ukraine.

Trump later pardoned Manafort, who was convicted.