Donald Trump’s family business and his 2017 inaugural committee have agreed to pay the District $750,000 in a settlement, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s office announced Tuesday. The settlement marks a major victory for Racine, who sued the inaugural committee, the Trump Organization, and the Trump International Hotel in 2020, arguing that the former president violated D.C. nonprofit law by using his inaugural committee funds and downtown hotel to enrich his family.
The lawsuit has made its way through the D.C. court system for over two years. The OAG said D.C. will split the funds from the settlement among two local youth-focused nonprofits: Mikva Challenge DC and DC Action.
“With our lawsuit, we are now clawing back money that Trump’s own inaugural committee misused,” Racine said in a statement. “We’re giving it to District nonprofits that will use those funds to help support civic engagement for the next generation of District leaders. No one is above the law—not even a president.”
In the original lawsuit, Racine alleged that Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) spent over $1 million to book a ballroom at the Trump International Hotel, which Racine said was a gross overpayment. This past November, a D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed the attorney general’s claims that the committee had “wasted” money at the Trump Hotel, but allowed the allegation that the PIC broke nonprofit law to go to trial. A trial date was set for September.
While the committee consented to paying the $750,000 to the District, it didn’t admit to any illegal activity. Trump himself, in a statement to multiple outlets, denied any wrongdoing.
“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,” Trump said. “This was yet another example of weaponizing Law Enforcement against the Republican Party and, in particular, the former President of the United States.”
Racine has a history of suing over alleged violations of nonprofit law — and a history of suing Trump. “Now any future presidential inaugural committees are on notice that they will not get away with such egregious actions,” Racine said in his statement.
The legal action comes as the Trump Organization is reportedly within days of closing the sale of the 263-room Trump Hotel to a Miami-based investment group that includes former Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez. The hotel will be rebranded as a Waldorf Astoria. The transition and removal of Trump’s name from the building’s facade could be imminent — local host and personality Tommy McFLY reported that hotel rooms now have a 10-night minimum and that the restaurant inside, BLT Prime, closed in late April.
Elliot C. Williams