WASHINGTON — Washington, D.C., and former President Donald Trump reached a settlement Tuesday in a lawsuit the city brought accusing his business and inaugural committee of improperly spending nonprofit funds.
The eight-page filing in D.C. Superior Court says Trump has agreed to pay the city government $750,000.
The city government alleged that Trump's presidential inaugural committee misused funds by "overpaying for events at the Trump Hotel to the private benefit of the Trump Hotel and Trump Organization" and by "paying for a hotel room contract at the Loews Madison Hotel," the settlement agreement said. It said the payments caused the committee to "exceed or abuse its lawful authority."
The settlement said Trump and the parties involved "dispute these allegations on numerous grounds and deny having engaged in any wrongdoing or unlawful conduct."
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine tweeted that the city is donating the $750,000 to "local nonprofits educating youth about democracy and civics." The court filing said the money will be split evenly between the Mikva Challenge Grant Foundation and DC Action.
"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," he said.
The city filed the lawsuit more than two years ago, in January 2020. Racine said at the time that the inaugural committee spent more than $1 million at the Trump International Hotel, some of it for a private party for Trump's children. The attorney general said in the lawsuit that Washington law "requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not to benefit private individuals or companies."
Trump said in a statement in response to the settlement announcement, "Given the impending sale of the Trump International Hotel, Washington D.C., and with absolutely no admission of liability or guilt, we have reached a settlement to end all litigation with Democrat Attorney General Racine."
"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. So bad for our Country!"