The Trump Organization, owned by former United States President Donald Trump, has agreed to pay $750,000 as a settlement for a lawsuit alleging the illegal receipt of funds during the Republican businessman's 2017 inauguration.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the attorney general for the District of Columbia, claims that the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., illegally received excessive payments from the inauguration committee. The settlement in the civil case comes with no admission of wrongdoing by the Trump Organization, Trump, or the committee.
Trump Organization's $750,000 Settlement
However, the payment involved amounted to nearly three-quarters of the $1.03 million that the lawsuit, which was filed by Attorney General Karl Racine of Washington, argued was used to pay Trump's hotel. The transaction was made to rent out space at what Racine asserted was an above-market rate.
The district attorney said that the area was used in part to host a private reception for the Republican businessman's children on the evening that he was sworn in as president. The situation also comes shortly before Trump was slated to formally close on the sale of the Trump International Hotel, as per the New York Times.
The hotel is planned to be converted to a Waldorf Astoria after Trump's name is removed from the landmark building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Earlier this year, negotiations to settle the suit intensified after a Superior Court judge in Washington set a trial date for September. He also rejected an attempt by the Trump Organization to be removed from the lawsuit.
One of Trump's first actions, after he was elected, was to illegally use his own inauguration to make his family wealthier. In a statement announcing the settlement on Tuesday, Racine said that non-profit funds can be used to line the pockets of individuals, no matter how powerful they were.
According to the Washington Post, lawyers for the district that filed the lawsuit also alleged that the Trump Organization improperly used the non-profit funds. They claim that they threw a party on Jan. 20, 2017, for the former president's children, Ivanka, Donald Jr., and Eric, which cost a total of $300,000.
Denial of Wrongdoing
The city further claimed that the Republican businessman's organization, the inaugural committee, and the Trump International Hotel, misused roughly $1.1 million. Racine noted that the settlement allowed the city to "claw back money" that Trump's inaugural committee illegally used.
An attorney for the inaugural committee, Lee Blalack, said that they were confident they would prevail at trial but opted for a settlement to avoid "significant costs" of litigation. He argued that the committee's insurer, which was funding the settlement, would have had to pay twice as much had the case gone to trial.
Trump also said that as crime rates were soaring in the capital, it was necessary for the attorney general to focus on those rather than a further leg of the greatest Witch-Hunt in political history. The settlement acknowledges that the defendants dispute the allegations and were settling "to avoid the cost, burden, and risks of further litigation," CNN reported.
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