Former President Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee and his company have agreed to pay $750,000 as part of a settlement with the D.C. attorney general, ending a yearslong lawsuit from the city that accused the former president’s family and its Washington hotel of improperly benefitting from nonprofit inaugural funds.
Mr. Trump noted there was “absolutely no admission of liability or guilt” in the settlement. He directed his ire at D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, suggesting he should instead focus on combating local crime.
“As crime rates are soaring in our Nation’s Capital, it is necessary that the Attorney General focus on those issues rather than a further leg of the greatest Witch-Hunt in political history,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “This was yet another example of weaponizing Law Enforcement against the Republican Party and, in particular, the former President of the United States. So bad for our Country!”
The settlement was celebrated by Mr. Racine, who brought the suit in 2020 against the Trump Organization and the Trump Presidential Inaugural Committee.
“We’re resolving our lawsuit and sending the message that if you violate DC nonprofit law — no matter how powerful you are — you’ll pay,” Mr. Racine wrote in a series of tweets. “In the District, we’re committed to ensuring that corruption comes at a cost. That should be clear to everyone, including future presidents.”
The settlement papers said the case was resolved “to avoid the cost, burden, and risks of further litigation.” It also said the Trump organizations “dispute these allegations on numerous grounds and deny having engaged in any wrongdoing or unlawful conduct.”
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The committee’s insurance company paid its portion of the settlement, which was $350,000, according to a committee official.
An attorney for the inaugural committee, Lee Blalack, said that while Mr. Racine did not seek monetary damages, the committee and its insurer “determined that settlement was prudent simply to avoid the significant costs of litigating these baseless allegations through trial.”
“Indeed, it would have required the [committee’s] insurer to spend double the amount of this insurance settlement just to try this case to verdict, and thus this modest settlement payment only makes common sense,” Mr. Blalack said in a statement.
The committee raised an unprecedented $107 million to stage balls and other events celebrating Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.
Mr. Trump’s company and the Trump International Hotel in Washington were accused of illegally receiving more than $1 million in money from the inaugural committee, which is a nonprofit, by charging above-market rates for inaugural events.
The $750,000 settlement will be split evenly between two local nonprofits that educate youth about democracy and civics: the Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation and the DC Action for Children Today DC ACT.
Mr. Trump’s hotel will soon be sold to Miami-based investment firm CGI Merchant Group, which will partner with Hilton Worldwide Holdings to rebrand the business under the Waldorf Astoria name.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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