Trump agrees to pay $750k to settle lawsuit over inaugural committee’s payments to his DC hotel

Donald Trump has reached an agreement to pay $750,000 ($600,083) to Washington DC after he was accused of overcharging his inaugural committee for use of his Trump International hotel in the city.

Announcing the settlement on Tuesday, DC Attorney General Karl Racine said the case was being resolved “to avoid the cost, burden, and risks of further litigation” from the allegations, which date back to Mr Trump’s 2017 inauguration.

“We filed this lawsuit against the Trump Hotel, Trump, Inaugural Committee, and Trump Organization to recover misspent nonprofit funds and ill-gotten gains,” Mr Racine wrote on Twitter. “With today’s successful resolution, we’re returning the money to DC”.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the District of Columbia in 2020, sought to challenge an estimated $1m (£800,090) in overpayments to the hotel by the committee. Mr Trump and his business deny any wrongdoing.

The former president said in statement of his own on Tuesday: “With absolutely no admission of liability or guilt, we have reached an agreement all litigation with Democrat Attorney Racine”.

He continued by condemning Mr Racine for the probe and lawsuit, and said: “As crime rates are soaring in our nation’s capital, it is necessary that the attorney focus on those issues rather than a further leg of the greatest Witch-hunt in political history”.

Mr Trump has often referred to a number of investigations into his and his businesses alleged wrongdoing as “witch hunts”, including those by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.