A judge in DC federal court dismissed part of a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General for the District of Columbia relating to how funds were used in 2017 by the Trump inaugural committee, the Washington Post reports.

D.C. Superior Court Judge José M. López, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, ruled that the accusation by D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine that the Trump inaugural committee “wasted” one million dollars by booking ballrooms and conference rooms at the Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington when other hotels were offering similar accommodations at lower rates or even free.

López determined that Racine did not meet the steep burden of proof required to prove the money was wasted.  In his opinion, López said that to prove money was wasted, Racine had to prove the expenditures were “so far beyond the bounds of reasonable business judgment that its only explanation was bad faith.”  López stated Racine did not meet that threshold. 

López, however, stated that another part of the case–that the Trump inaugural campaign used money raised to illegally enrich the Trump family through a “private inurement”–could continue.  Non-profits cannot intentionally spend money to enrich specific individuals connected with the non-profit.

López wrote that he had many questions that needed to be answered: “Did higher ranking Trump family officials have the ability to control the workings of the [committee]? Did members of the [committee] ignore internal recommendations to pay the Trump Hotel for services that could have been offered free?”