Donald Trump.Photo: Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images
Donald Trumpappears one step closer to being able to officially reside at his private Mar-a-Lago Club.
An attorney for the town of Palm Beach, Florida, wrote in a new memo that the former president is within his rights to live there, despite a 1993 use agreement in which he promised that members of the club would not stay at Mar-a-Lago for longer than seven days at a time.
After it was reported that the 2,000-square-foot apartment where Trump, 74, usually stays at the club wasbeing renovatedin advance of his leaving office, a group of Palm Beach residentspointedto an agreement he signed in the 1990s after converting the private residence to a business.
The Washington Postreported that, in addition, a Trump lawyer had “assured the town council in a public meeting that his client would not live at Mar-a-Lago.”
In practice, however, Trump, has routinely stayed at his club for longer than seven days at a time and he has been there since leaving the White House on Jan. 20.
In aletter sent to Palm Beachlast year, some locals argued that Mar-a-Lago is either a private residence or a private club — but it cannot be both.
“To avoid an embarrassing situation for everyone and to give the president time to make other living arrangements in the area, we trust you will work with his team to remind them of the use agreement parameters,” reads the letter to the town, according to thePostandThe New YorkTimes. “Palm Beach has many lovely estates for sale, and surely he can find one which meets his needs.” (Indeed, Trump owns multiple properties in the area.)
Mar-a-Lago Club.Joe Raedle/Getty
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Last month, Palm Beach Town Manager Kirk Blouin told PEOPLE that an attorney for the town wasreviewing that contractdue to the controversy. Blouin said the attorney intended to present their findings at the next council meeting.
The agreement, Randolph wrote in the memo, “did not incorporate a direct prohibition on former President Trump residing at the Club.”
Instead of using the agreement to determine whether or not Trump can legally live at Mar-a-Lago, wrote Randolph, the town should look to its zoning code, which allows “bona fide employees” to live within private clubs.
“lf he is a bona fide employee of the Club, absent a specific restriction prohibiting former President Trump from residing at the Club, it appears the Zoning Code permits him to reside at the Club,” Randolph wrote.
Randolph recommends in his memo that the Palm Beach mayor and its town council hear presentations from both the neighbors who don’t want Trump living at Mar-a-Lago as well as representatives for the club and representatives for Trump himself.
Requests for comment from the Palm Beach town manager and from Randolph were not immediately returned on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization previously told PEOPLE that “there is no document or agreement in place that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-a-Lago as his residence.”
“Another question asked of him is whether or not Mr. Trump will continue to live at Mar-a-Lago and the answer is ‘No,’ except that he will be a member of the Club and would be entitled to use the guest rooms,” the attorney said, according to Randolph’s memo.
Those findings come after John Marion, an attorney representing Trump and Mar-a-Lago, wrote Randolph to defend the idea that the former president was within his right to maintain a residence at the club.
The defense, according to Trump’s attorney, is that the ’90s use agreement promised that no one would stay in one of Mar-a-Lago’s “guest suites” for longer than seven days at a time.
From left: Melania Trump and Donald Trump exit Air Force One at the Palm Beach International Airport on the way to their Mar-a-Lago Club not long before Joe Biden is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20.Noam Galai/Getty
“Importantly, while the Town could have specifically provided in the Agreement that the Owner could not reside on the property, it did not,” reads Marion’s letter, dated Jan. 28. “The Town did specifically limit the use of the guest suites on the property … but President Trump does not use a guest suite when at [Mar-a-Lago], he uses the ‘Owner’s Suite’, which is not a guest suite.”
Further, wrote Marion, Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago would adhere to Palm Beach zoning codes.
“President Trump is the President of Mar-A-Lago Club, LLC … and as a corporate officer oversees the property,” Marion argued. “He is therefore a bona fide employee within the express terms of the Town’s Zoning Code. As such, separate and apart from all of the other reasons outlined above, under the Town’s own Zoning Code he is clearly entitled to reside there.”
The Trumps already appear to be making themselves at home in South Florida, where they arrived not long beforeJoe Bidenwas sworn in as the next president.
The Trump children are also purchasing or considering property in Florida, sources have said.
source: people.com
