The Trumps were caught doing what the Trumps do best, taking money that belongs to someone else and converting it to money that belongs to the Trumps. In the case of Trump’s 2017 Inauguration Committee (the Committee that funds the parties), the entity is a non-profit and as a 501(c)(3) doesn’t belong to Trump any more than it belongs to you. But given that Trump had a hotel in the area, Trump could enrich himself by charging that “charity” far higher rates than what might normally be charged and perhaps pocket a few extra million.
A few extra million should be nothing to a billionaire, but that’s just the way the Trumps roll. They use every opportunity everywhere to pick up a million here or there, right on down to charging the Secret Service for sandwiches and golf carts.
But the District of Columbia D.A. saw what was happening during the inauguration and sued in civil court to get some of the money back. Today, they announced that the suit was settled, quite successfully.
According to the New York Times:
The Trump family business and President Donald J. Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee have jointly agreed to pay $750,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the attorney general for the District of Columbia, who claimed that the Trump International Hotel in Washington illegally received excessive payments from the inauguration committee. The settlement in the civil suit came with no admission of wrongdoing by the Trump Organization, the former president or the inaugural committee.
But the payment amounted to nearly three-quarters of the $1.03 million that the lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Karl Racine of Washington, said had been paid to Mr. Trump’s hotel by the nonprofit inaugural committee to rent out space at what Mr. Racine asserted was an above-market rate and then use it in part to host a private reception for Mr. Trump’s children on the evening he was sworn in as president.
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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman
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