Judge sets trial date for case against Trump inaugural committee

A Washington, D.C., judge on Thursday set a September trial date for a case brought by the D.C. attorney general against former President Trump's 2017 inaugural committee.

D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams scheduled the trial to begin on Sept. 26 -- a date that will fall a few weeks ahead of the pivotal 2022 midterm elections in November.

The move comes three days after Williams reversed another judge's earlier decision removing Trump's family business from the suit.

The D.C. Attorney General's Office alleges that Trump's 2017 Presidential Inaugural Committee misused nonprofit funds to pay for event space at the Trump Hotel and other expenditures. The case rests, in part, on the claim of "private inurement" -- the question of whether the inaugural committee used its funds for private benefit rather than nonprofit purposes.

A superior court judge dismissed a portion of a lawsuit in November 2020, saying the AG's office had not met the standard of proof that would allow that part of the suit to proceed. The ruling removed the Trump Organization as a named defendant in the case, yet kept the former president's Washington hotel as a named defendant, as well as the inaugural committee itself -- before Williams reinstated the Trump Organization as a defendant on Monday.

Also during Thursday's hearing, Trump's legal team asked the judge to not allow the D.C. attorney general to depose former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in the inaugural committee case, claiming it would be a "broader fishing expedition."

Judge Williams ultimately said she would "allow a limited deposition of Mr. Weisselberg."