Trump Org Takes NYC to Court Over Its Cancellation of Contracts After Jan. 6
The Trump Organization is suing New York City, charging a contract was wrongfully terminated when Mayor Bill de Blasio gave the company the ax after the Jan. 6 incursion of the U.S. Capitol.
Central to the lawsuit, filed Monday, is the city’s decision to cancel a contract for the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx that was not set to expire until 2032, according to ABC News.
“The City has no right to terminate our contract,” Trump Organization officials said in a statement. “Mayor de Blasio’s actions are purely politically motivated, have no legal merit, and are yet another example of the mayor’s efforts to advance his own partisan agenda and interfere with free enterprise.”
“But for our involvement, New Yorkers would still be looking at an environmental eyesore instead of a spectacular, world-class golf facility,” the organization said, according to the New York Post.
The Trump Organization opened the course in 2015. The city had spent the previous 15 years trying to find someone to develop the former landfill the course is built upon, according to the lawsuit.
The Trump Organization invested more than $30 million in the course, the suit said.
The lawsuit framed the actions of Democrat de Blasio in killing the contract as another chapter in his long-running antagonistic relationship with former President Donald Trump.
“Mayor de Blasio had a pre-existing, politically-based predisposition to terminate Trump-related contracts, and the city used the events of January 6, 2021 as a pretext to do so,” the suit said.
“There can be no dispute that we are not just meeting, but exceeding our obligation to operate a first class, tournament quality daily fee golf course,” the Trump Organization’s statement said.
The city, however, said Trump deserves to pay for the events of Jan. 6.
“The actions of Mr. Trump to incite a deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 caused a breach of the Ferry Point contract by eliminating options for hosting championship events, and we will vigorously defend the City’s decision to terminate the contract,” a spokesman for the New York City Law Department said, according to ABC News.
“It was Donald Trump who interfered with basic democracy when he incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol,” City Hall spokesman Bill Neidhardt said. “You do that, and you lose the privilege of doing business with the City of New York. It’s as simple as that.
In the more prosaic world of legal affairs, the city claimed the incursion left Trump with a “tarnished brand” that would prevent the course from ever attracting a professional tournament.
The lawsuit countered that by saying the course only had to be capable of hosting such an event in order to adhere to terms of the contract.
The course “has fully complied with, and continues fully to comply with, its obligation to operate the licensed premises as a first class, tournament quality daily fee golf course,” the suit said.
The lawsuit said that if the city wants out of its agreement with the Trump Organization, it will owe Trump $30 million.
In January, Eric Trump, who along with Donald Trump Jr. ran the Trump Organization while their father was in the White House, attacked those cutting ties with the business, according to The Associated Press.
“We live in the age of cancel culture, but this isn’t something that started this week. It is something that they have been doing to us and others for years,” he said. “If you disagree with them, if they don’t like you, they try and cancel you.”
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