Trump settles lawsuit alleging he funneled inauguration cash to his own DC hotel (msn.com)

Trump settles lawsuit alleging he funneled inauguration cash to his own DC hotel

As a special grand jury in Georgia just begins looking into Donald Trump's attempts to interfere with the 2020 presidential election results in the state, one of the other of the former president's legal travails is coming to a close, reports the New York Times.

According to the report, the Trump family business and the former president's 2017 inauguration committee have jointly agreed to pay a $750,000 fine for funneling money into the coffers at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. 

The Times' Eric Lipton is reporting that the agreement does not come attached to an admission of guilt.

The hotel, which has been the focus of a tremendous amount of scrutiny over the ethics of the country's chief executive also cashing in as a hotelier in the capital city, is poised to be converted to a Waldorf Astoria in just a few days after the agreement was reached.

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According to the report, "... 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."

Saying the funds from the settlement will be donated to two D.C.-area nonprofits, Racine issued a statement saying, "After he was elected, one of the first actions Donald Trump took was illegally using his own inauguration to enrich his family. Nonprofit funds cannot be used to line the pockets of individuals, no matter how powerful they are.”

The report adds that Ivanka Trump, who was forced to give a 5-hour deposition in the lawsuit, previously tweeted, "The ‘inquiry’ is another politically motivated demonstration of vindictiveness and waste of taxpayer dollars.”