Case Questioning Trump’s ‘Good Character’ Stalls

WASHINGTON — Since President Donald Trump took office, residents of deep-blue Washington and the surrounding suburbs and activists from everywhere have found plenty of ways, some more creative than others, to express their anger at him. One reliable target has been the Trump International Hotel just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.

Business owners and ethics lawyers have targeted the hotel with a steady series of lawsuits. Others have projected a steady flow of provocative messages — including the less-than-subtle accusation “Emoluments Welcome” — directly onto the building’s facade.

The latest attempt to protest the president by targeting the hotel came Wednesday, just as Trump was getting ready to welcome Republican donors to the hotel. A group of residents — with the help of lawyers and the financial backing of Jerry Hirsch, an Arizona-based Republican and chairman of the Lodestar Foundation — asked the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of the District of Columbia to review whether the president met the city’s “good character” test for holding a liquor license.

The original 27-page complaint was filed in June, and was festooned with footnotes that point to reports of ethical breaches — though the complaint said the “number of such lies is too long to list.” As the summer passed, the complaint grew by dozens of pages as news surrounding the Trump White House unfolded.

A plea deal struck with federal prosecutors by Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, who acknowledged in August that he had made illegal payments to women during the 2016 campaign who had claimed they had affairs with Trump, resulted in another 50 or so pages of reading material for the board to consider.

“This brings to the board evidence of Mr. Trump’s criminal conduct,” said Joshua Levy, a lawyer who filed the complaint on behalf of the residents. “That may not rise to an indictment, but it is certainly evidence of bad character.”

Joan Goldfrank, a former magistrate judge, was one of seven residents, including several clergy members, who signed the complaint, which documents in exhaustive detail accusations of racism, deceit and sexual assault lobbed at the president.

“This is such a local thing,” Goldfrank said. “You want the kids in this city to understand that no matter who you are, if you get something that’s granted by the government, if you have a privilege, that you have to respect it and honor it.”

None of it had much of an effect. In the end, the board unanimously declined to pursue the complaint, punting a decision to review the case until next spring. The group also said it would review a claim that the hotel had served alcohol to a minor.

On Wednesday, there was no vocal pushback from the Trump Organization against the effort, and it had no comment about the board’s decision, except for three American flag emojis sent by email from Trump’s son, Eric.

The non-emoji argument made in the past by Trump’s lawyers and members of the Trump Organization — and one soundly rejected by ethics lawyers — was that Trump distanced himself from his business by placing his vast business holdings in a trust, and that the cases against him were publicity stunts.

In the past, the Trump Organization has hit back at legal tangles, including a lawsuit lodged last year by Diane Gross and Khalid Pitts, the owners of the Cork Wine Bar, who claimed that the hotel was taking business away from them. The pair’s lawsuit offered a few options for resolution: The hotel could stop operating, Trump and his family could fully divest from the business, or Trump could resign from office.

At the time, the company called the lawsuit “a wild publicity stunt completely lacking in legal merit,” and Trump’s lawyers claimed that the president was immune to such legal challenges.

The activists Wednesday were targeting one of the hotel’s most profitable areas. Last June, documents accidentally posted by the General Services Administration showed that the Trump Organization turned a $2 million profit from the hotel during the first four months of that year. According to those documents, the hotel remained at 45 percent occupancy, but profit from food and beverage services surpassed the company’s expectations by some 200 percent.

Levy, the lawyer, said after the board decided not to pursue revoking the hotel’s liquor license that he would be back at the end of the week with a letter detailing why it was the wrong decision.

At the White House, Trump prepared to greet supporters at his hotel. An invitation circulated to supporters advertised an opportunity to attend a round table with the president at $100,000 a person. For $35,000 each, couples could have their photo taken with Trump.