- Palm Beach officials have confirmed they are conducting a legal investigation into Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago.
- The news comes a month after the former president’s neighbors sued him for violating a 1993 agreement.
- After Trump converted the private residence into a club in 1993, Trump agreed to limit his stay there.
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Palm Beach officials have confirmed they are conducting a legal investigation into former President Trump’s right of residence in Mar-a-Lago, a month after neighbors sued him for violating a 1993 agreement with the city.
More than 25 years ago, Trump entered into a legal agreement with the city of Palm Beach that he would limit his stay in Mar-a-Lago, in exchange for turning his private residence into a social club.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties agreed that no guest, including Trump, may stay at the club for more than ‘three consecutive seven-day periods’ for one year.
But the former president’s decision to make Mar-a-Lago his permanent home after his tenure in the White House could complicate matters.
Trump has now been in the luxury home for more than a week after moving in on January 20th.
Read more: Trump’s information about the secret service can be sued to testify against him in criminal proceedings and former agents are stressed about it
Last month, some Palm Beach residents took action and allegedly wrote a letter to the Palm Beach authorities and the U.S. Secret Service stating that Trump had no legal right to live there full-time, citing the 1993 agreement.
Now officials have confirmed they are investigating the matter and it could be discussed at an upcoming city council meeting, the city manager told CNN on Friday.
“This matter is being legally adjudicated by a city attorney, John ‘Skip’ Randolph,” Palm Beach City Manager Kirk Blouin told CNN. “Mr Randolph is reviewing the agreement on the declaration of use and our ordinance to determine whether former President Trump can live in Mar-a-Lago.”
The Trump Organization told The Huffington Post: “There is absolutely no document or agreement that prohibits President Trump from using Mar-A-Lago as his residence.”
This is not the first time Trump has exceeded his visits to Mar-a-Lago.
According to a review by The Huffington Post, the former president violated this agreement on three different occasions during his presidency: in 2017, 2019 and 2020.
Trump flew back to Mar-a-Lago with his family on January 20 and chose to leave the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
Since his return, the luxury resort has reportedly become a ‘sad’ and ‘discouraged’ place, an insider at the resort told MSNBC last week.
Some members, who paid $ 200,000 to join the club, also reportedly left forever due to concerns that they might be linked to the president or appear in newspaper reports.
“They want nothing to do with Donald Trump,” author Laurence Leamer told MSNBC. “A lot of the members don’t go there very often because it’s a very common place.”
He continued: “This is a sad place for Trump to visit. That’s not what it was. ‘