The Trump Organization sued New York City on Monday, saying it wrongly terminated a lucrative golf course contract for political reasons after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol in Washington.
The suit, filed in New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan on the eve of the mayoral election, argued that the January decision by Mayor Bill de Blasio to end the company's 20-year contract to run the public golf course in the Bronx had no legitimate legal basis and was meant only to punish former President Donald Trump.
"Mayor de Blasio had a preexisting, politically based predisposition to terminate Trump-related contracts, and the city used the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as a pretext to do so," the suit says.
In a statement, the company said the course was "widely recognized as one of the most magnificent public golf experiences anywhere in the country."
A spokesman for the mayor, Bill Neidhardt, responded, saying: "Donald Trump directly incited a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. You do that, and you lose the privilege of doing business with the City of New York."
Trump was impeached on a charge of inciting the riot, marking his second impeachment, but was acquitted by the Senate after leaving office.
After the attack on the Capitol, the city abruptly ended several contracts with the Trump Organization, including agreements that allowed the company to operate the Central Park Carousel and two ice-skating rinks in the park.
The moves came as businesses also backed away from Trump after the attack, including the PGA of America, which announced it would no longer hold one of its major tournaments at a New Jersey golf club owned by the president.
The contracts in Central Park had already been set to expire in April. The lawsuit centers on a city-owned course in the Ferry Point section of the Bronx, called Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point. The Trump Organization was in its sixth year of running the course, which opened in 2015.
Overall, the contracts had garnered the Trump Organization about $17 million a year, de Blasio said in January.
Although de Blasio said then that the decision to sever ties was made because Trump incited rioters at the Capitol, the city offered a contractual basis for the decision: The Trump Organization had defaulted in its agreement on the golf course because it had not attracted a major tournament and was unlikely to do so in the future, given the PGA's decision.
De Blasio insisted at the time that the city was on "strong legal ground," but the Trump Organization vowed to fight back, saying the move was a form of political discrimination.
Now, the company has made its case in an 18-page petition, saying it was never obliged to attract a tournament but merely to maintain "a first class tournament quality daily fee golf course." The petition included several statements from professional golfers, including Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, attesting to the course being "first class" and "tournament quality."
There is little love lost between Trump and de Blasio. Trump has called de Blasio, a Democrat and a 2020 presidential candidate, "the worst mayor in the history of New York City."
De Blasio, in turn, embraced Trump as a foil during an ill-fated presidential run, even attempting to give the president a nickname: "Con Don."
The lawsuit comes as Trump and his company are facing an unrelated criminal investigation from the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is examining whether Trump and his employees committed financial fraud in recent years.
Prosecutors appear to be in the final stages of investigating Allen Weisselberg, Trump's long-serving chief financial officer, and could criminally charge him this summer, The New York Times has reported.
Weisselberg, who has worked for the Trump family since 1973, was listed as the contact for the company on the city's contract for the Central Park Carousel.